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Misery for Oscar in Ostrava

Ostrava - Double amputee Oscar Pistorius endured a shocking start to his ongoing battle to nail qualification for the able-bodied London Olympics at the Ostrava Golden Spike on Friday.

The 25-year-old South African, who runs with carbon-fibre artificial 'blades' and was cleared to compete at top level in 2008 when the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a ruling by the IAAF that his blades gave him an unfair advantage, came in a sorry eighth and last in the men's 400m.

Pistorius, who had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old because of a congenital condition that meant he was born without fibulae (lower leg bones), clocked 47.66.

His time was 2.54 off American LaShawn Merritt's winning 45.13 and far away from the 45.70 he needs to nail to ensure his participation at the London Games this summer.

"The time was so bad!" Pistorius said. "I don't know what to say. I can run that fast at the end of a tough training session or straight after getting up out of bed in the morning.

"The start actually wasn't that bad, but between 30 and 120 metres, there was nothing, far too slow.

"You could call that a really bad day. But I have no one else to blame apart from myself.

"I have to run two more meetings and then train in my base in Italy.

"I have to concentrate on myself, maybe work more on the start and hope this time can be forgotten."

Pistorius failed to qualify for the 400m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after being cleared by CAS to compete.

But he went on to compete at the 2011 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, where he made the 400m semi-final and won a silver in the 4x400m relay, although he did not race the final.

The result was a good one for Merritt, the defending Olympic champion and reigning world silver medallist, who was banned for 21 months after testing positive for the anabolic steroid DHEA which his lawyer claimed had been contained unknowingly in an over-the-counter penis enlargement product.

"I'm satisfied with my performance here," Merritt said. "I wanted to go for the meet record but the weather put paid to that.

"I'm in great shape for the Olympic trials and I hope I won't be missing the London Olympics.

"There I want to fight for the medal - the golden one."

Results from the Golden Spike, part of the IAAF world challenge series (all distances in metres):

Men (equals):


100m, Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 10.04 seconds. 2, Kim Collins, St. Kitts and Nevis, 10.19. 3, Darvis Patton, United States, 10.22. 4, Lerone Clarke, Jamaica, 10.26. 5, Dwain Chambers, Britain, 10.28. 6, Justyn Warner, Canada, 10.30.

200m, Wallace Spearmon, United States, 20.14. 2, Marvin Anderson, Jamaica, 20.41. 3, Michael Mathieu, Bahamas, 20.45. 4, Jared Connaughton, Canada, 20.80. 5, Pavel Maslak, Czech Republic, 20.85. 6, Jonathan Astrand, Finland, 20.92.

400m, LeShawn Merritt, United States, 45.13. 2, Luguelin Santos, Domincan Republic, 45.76. 3, Nery Brenes, Costa Rica, 45.84. 4, Edino Steele, Jamaica, 46.37. 5, Marcell Deak-Nagy, Hungary, 46.74. 6, Josef Prokop, Czech Republic, 46.97. 7, Chris Clarke, Britain, 47.50. 8, Oscar Pistorius, South Africa, 47.66.

800m, Adam Kszczot, Poland, 1:44.90. 2, Andrew Osagie, Britain, 1:45.24. 3, Abraham Rotich, Kenya, 1:45.52. 4, Hamid Oualich, France, 1:45.96. 5, Jakub Holusa, Czech Republic, 1:46.63. 6, Paul Renaudie, France, 1:47.45.

3,000m, Isiah Koech, Kenya, 7:37.14. 2, Cornelius Kangogo, Kenya, 7:39.73. 3, Andy Baddeley, Britain, 7:39.86. 4, Japheth Korir, Kenya, 7:40.37. 5, Tigabu Gebremariam, Ethiopia, 7:41.02. 6, Elroy Gelant, South Africa, 7:41.38.

110m Hurdles-1, Dexter Faulk, United States, 13.13. 2, Jeff Porter, United States, 13.29. 3, Ryan Wilson, United States, 13.35. 4, Andy Pozzi, Britain, 13.36. 5. Lawrence Clarke, Britain, 13.42. 6, Andy Turner, Britain, 13.48.

400m Hurdles-1, Brent Larue, Slovenia, 49.61. 2, Josef Prorok, Czech Republic, 50.25. 3, Vaclav Barak, Czech Republic, 50.58. 4, Richard Davenport, Britain, 51.54. 5, Jussi Heikkila, Finland, 52.33. 6, Niall Flannery, Britain, 52.46.

Pole Vault-1, Renaud Lavillenie, France, 5.90. 2. Karsten Dilla, Germany, 5.72. 3, Steven Lewis, Britain, 5.72. 4, Jan Kudlicka, Czech Republic, 5.62. 5, Przemyslaw Czerwinski, Poland, 5.62. 6, Jerome Clavier, France, 5.42.

Shot Put-1, Dylan Armstrong, Canada, 21.29. 2, Tomasz Majewski, Poland, 21.01. 3, Justin Rodhe, Canada, 20.84. 4. David Storl, Germany, 20.50. 5, Ladislav Prasil, Czech Republic, 19.78. 6, Antonin Zalsky, Czech Republic, 19.52.

Javelin-1, Vitezslav Vesely, Czech Republic, 85.67. 2, Andreas Thorkildsen, Norway, 84.72. 3, Dmitriy Tarabin, Russia, 81.37. 4, Tero Pitkamaki, Finland, 78.86. 5, Till Woeschler, Germany, 77.69. 6, Jakub Vadlejch, Czech Republic, 75.56.

Women (equals):

200m, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jamaica, 22.38. 2, Bianca Knight, United States, 22.85. 3, Tiffany Townsend, United States, 23.18. 4, Tsholofelo Thipe, South Africa, 23.40. 5, Francena McCorory, United States, 23.53. 6, Sheri-Ann Brooks, Jamaica, 23.57.

400m, Sanya Richards-Ross, United States, 50.65. 2, Christine Ohuruogu, Britain, 51.19. 3, Patricia Hall, Jamaica, 51.75. 4, Kseniya Zadorina, Russia, 51.81. 5, Denisa Rosolova, Czech Republic, 52.10. 6, Muriel Hurtis, France, 52.13.

800m, Pamela Jelimo, Kenya, 1:58.49. 2, Caster Semenya, South Africa, 2:00.80. 3, Fantu Magiso, Ethiopia, 2:01.03. 4, Yekaterina Kostetskaya, Russia, 2:01.52. 5, Marilyn Okoro, Britain, 2:01.70. 6, Tamsyn Manou, Australia, 2:01.87.

100m Hurdles-1, Tiffany Porter, Britain, 12.65. 2, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, Canada, 12.80. 3, Lolo Jones, United States, 12.94. 4. Queen Harrison, United States, 12.96. 5, Nikita Holder, Canada, 12.99. 6, Phylicia George, Canada, 13.06.

400m Hurdles-1, Vania Stambolova, Bulgaria, 54.15. 2, Zuzana Hejnova, Czech Republic, 55.28. 3, Perri Shakes-Drayton, Britain, 55.82. 4, Angela Morosanu, Romania, 56.15. 5, Zuzana Bergrova, Czech Republic, 56.70. 6, Lashinda Demus, United States, 57.43.

Javelin-1, Barbora Spotakova, Czech Republic, 67.78. 2, Mariya Abakumova, Russia, 64.34. 3, Kathryn Mitchell, Australia, 64.34. 4, Martina Ratej, Slovenia, 62.39. 5, Sunette Viljoen, South Africa, 61.84. 6, Kara Patterson, United States, 60.00.

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