South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius safely advanced to the semi-finals of the 400 metres this morning 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.
