{"id":12509,"date":"2012-07-18T00:55:43","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T22:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/olympics-london-bound-pistorius-already-dreaming-of-rio\/"},"modified":"2012-07-18T00:55:43","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T22:55:43","slug":"olympics-london-bound-pistorius-already-dreaming-of-rio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/olympics-london-bound-pistorius-already-dreaming-of-rio\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics-London bound Pistorius already dreaming of Rio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mitch Phillips<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, July 17<\/span> (Reuters) – After striving to qualify for
\nthe 400 metres at the London Olympics for six years, Oscar
\nPistorius believes he will now be better placed to run at the
\nRio de Janeiro Games in 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African, who wears carbon fibre blades, will
\nbecome the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. He
\nreached the 400 metres individual competition despite failing to
\nregister the A standard qualifying because he was selected for
\nthe country’s 4×400 relay team.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was very lucky that they did take a couple of athletes
\nwho had just missed the A qualification within the past couple
\nof weeks. I was very blessed and I believe I will do the best
\nand represent my country well in London,” Pistorius told
\nLaureus.com in a break from training in Italy.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Not making the qualification criteria was pretty tough. I
\nwas hoping and sure that I would be on the relay team but the
\n400 metres individual was something that I had always wanted to
\nbe on.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I ran the qualification very comfortably last year and then
\nopening up this season, in my first race, I ran a very strong
\nqualification time but when I came to Europe I was just
\nstruggling a bit. I had a niggle with my hip and it was amazing
\nhow that set me back in the first couple of races.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Finally when the team was selected, knowing that I have
\nmade the individual and relay was just a dream come true and a
\nmassive blessing. It has been six years of a lot of hard work
\nand sacrifice from our end, not only from me, but from my team
\nand now I have to be thinking about performing at a higher
\nlevel.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

At the world championships in Daegu last year, Pistorius
\nreached the semi-finals in the 400 and ran the opening leg in
\nthe 4×400 relay heats. He helped South Africa to reach the final
\nwhere, having dropped “Bladerunner”, they took the silver medal.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“My targets for the Olympic Games would be to make the
\nsemi-final (in the individual),” he said.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mitch Phillips LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) – After striving to qualify for the 400 metres at the London Olympics for six years, Oscar Pistorius believes he will now be better placed to run at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. The South African, who wears carbon fibre blades, will become the first double […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}