Saturday, 4 August 2012

Pistorius advances to 400m semis

Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images
Olympics Athletics News: Oscar Pistorius, South Africa


South Africa's Oscar Pistorius safely advanced to the semi-finals of the 400 metres on his historic Olympic appearance in London.
Pistorius became the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics when he ran in heat one, with the man known as 'Blade Runner' due to his prosthetic legs finishing second in 45.44 seconds.
The 25-year-old had looked set to miss out on a place in the individual event after failing to run a second 'A' qualifying time to gain automatic selection.
He fell agonisingly short at his final attempt in July, but was selected for his country's 4x400m relay team - in which he won a silver medal at the World Championships last year - which meant he could be selected for the individual event.
Pistorius said: "I was so nervous. Thanks to everyone for showing their support. I didn't know whether to cry, I had a mixture of emotions. It was the most amazing experience."
In the heptathlon, Britain's Jessica Ennis edged closer to the gold medal with an excellent jump in the second round of the long jump.
Ennis has struggled with her run-up this season, committing seven fouls in 12 attempts during two competitions earlier this summer, and managed just 5.95m with her first attempt.
However, the 26-year-old then hit the board perfectly on her second attempt to soar out to 6.40m, just 11cm down on her personal best and worth 975 points.
Ennis led by 184 points overnight with the long jump, javelin and 800m to come.

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