Pistorius Lights Up Christchurch With 200m Gold

Pistorius Lights Up Christchurch With 200m Gold

`Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius claimed his first gold in the 2011 IPC
Athletics World Championships with an emphatic performance in the Men's 200m
T44.

The South African World record holder dominated from start to finish to lead
home the field in 21.80 seconds. His close rival Jerome Singleton of the USA
claimed silver in 22.77, knocking more than half a second off his personal
best and sending a clear message that he certainly means business in
Wednesday's 100m Final.

South Africa also claimed bronze through Arnu Fourie who ran 22.82 and also
took more than half a seconds off his previous best time.

Great Britain increased their gold medal tally to four through Richard
Whitehead who set a new Championship record in winning the Men's 200m T42 in
25.88. France's Clavel Kayitare (26.54) took silver and Japan's Atsushi
Yamamoto (26.92) the bronze.

In the third 200m race on the third morning of competition Antonis Aresti
(22.25) of Cyprus won gold in the T46 Final. T45 athlete Yohansson Nascimento
of Brazil set a new World record time of 22.35 in taking silver. Bronze went
to Australia's Simon Patmore (22.43).

In the Men's 100m T13 Russia's Alexey Labzin took advantage of the absence of
World record holder Jason Smyth, missing through injury, to win gold in
11.09. South Africa's Ndodomzi Jonathan Ntutu took silver in 11.11 and
Greece's Ioannis Protos the bronze in 11.25.

World record holder Wa Wai So (12.17) set a new Championship record in
winning gold in the Men's 100m T36. Great Britain's Benjamin Rushgrove
(12.25) took silver and Ukraine's Roman Pavlyk (12.26) the bronze.

Another Championship record fell in the Men's 1,500m T46 after Algeria's
Samir Nouioua finished in 3:57.37 to take gold. Silver went to Ethiopa's
Wondiye Fikre Indelbu (3:58.75) and bronze Kenya's Abraham Tarbei (3:58.91)

In the Final of Women's 4x100m Relay F35-38 Ukraine took gold in a new World
record time of 55.07. Russia (55.70) took silver and Great Britain (58.33)
bronze.

In the field Russia's Alexy Kuznetsov (F54) set a new World record of
29.44m/999points in winning the Men's Javelin F54/55/56. Silver went to
Serbia's Drazenko Mitrovic (26.45m/958 points) whilst Mexico's Luis Alberto
Zepeda Felix (25.27m/936 points) claimed bronze.

Latvia's Aigars Apinis (10.03m/1001 points) also set a new World record on
his way to gold in the Men's Shot Put. Mexico's Mauro Maximo De Jesus
(8.31m/931 points) took silver and Ales Kisy (8.25m/931 points) of the Czech
Republic the bronze.

Greek athlete Paschalis Stathelakos was the final world record breaker of the
morning session in the Men's Discus F40. In a hotly contested final
Stathelakos threw 40.92m putting him ahead of the previous world record
holder Jonathan de Souza Santos (39.31m) of Brazil. Bronze went to USA's
Scott Danberg (36.18m).

Gold in the Women's Long Jump F20 went to Croatia's Mikela Ristoski (5.10m)
whilst Poland's Karolina Kucharczyk (5.00m) and Krestina Zhukova (4.80m) took
silver and bronze respectively.

Having won the Discus yesterday Spain's David Casinos (12.93m) claimed his
second gold of the Championships in the Men's Shot Put F11. Silver went to
Ukraine's Vasyl Lishchynskyi (12.81m) and bronze Columbia's Edwin Rodriguez
Gonzalez (10.72m).

There were five World and four Championship records broken on the third
morning of the Championships bringing the overall total to 23 World records
and 43 Championships records.

ends

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