(Writes through)
By Toby Davis
LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) – Oscar Pistorius complained
vociferously about the length of his opponent’s blades after he
was beaten into second by Brazil’s Alan Oliveira in the men’s
200 metres final at the London Paralympic Games on Sunday.
South African Pistorius streaked into an early lead and was
almost 10 metres ahead as the athletes came into the home
straight, before the Brazilian launched an astonishing
fightback.
Oliveira ate up the ground and surged past Pistorius in the
final few metres.
The underdog finished with a time of 21.45 seconds, seven
hundredths of a second ahead of Pistorius, who won gold in the
event four years ago in Beijing, with American Blake Leeper in
third.
The result left Pistorius seething about his opponent’s
prosthetic blades, which he claimed were too long.
“This is a really strong race of mine, and as I said in the
mixed zone, the size of some of the other guys’ legs are
unbelievably long,” Pistorius told Britain’s Channel 4.
“Not taking anything away from Alan, he’s a great athlete,
but the guys who do the measuring in the courtrooms, some of
these guys are a lot taller and you can’t compete for stride
length.
Continued…
