Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: Man with no legs (almost) wins 400m race
Amazing stuff!
Quote:
Last Friday night, Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee athlete who runs using carbon-fibre transtibial artificial limbs, became the first disabled athlete to compete officially in an able-bodied race, taking on club runners in the 400m at the Golden Gala in Rome and finishing an impressive second place.
Pistorius was given permission to compete with regular athletes in June this year, and ultimately hopes to compete at either the Beijing or the London Olympics.
However, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) has serious concerns that his artificial legs might actually give him an unfair advantage. The federation has been using various cameras to study Pistorius' running motion and want to get him into the lab for further analysis.
An important point is that Pistorius runs the second half of his races faster than the first - something that is very rare of among regular athletes. Perhaps his prosthetic limbs allow him to build up enough momentum during the first half of the race to conserve energy for the second half. Pistorius and his coaching team claim that say he simply needs more energy to start running. You can judge for yourself from the video below.
Two points of contention are the length of his artificial limbs, which may allow him to cover more ground with each stride, and the fact that he doesn't experience the lactic acid build-up that slows other athletes down as the race goes on.
To be honest, it seems unlikely they'll let him to run in the Olympics. But it seems a shame to me. He's clearly an extraordinary athlete and it would be fascinating to see him test himself against the very best in the world.
In the end, however, he may struggle to achieve the required qualifying time. On Saturday night, he took on a much tougher field at the British Grand Prix in Norwich and, in wet conditions, he found it difficult, finishing last and eventually being disqualified for straying out of lane.
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