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29 March 2024

Oscar Pistorius races Qatari thoroughbred

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By Staff

A famous South African runner with amputated legs left thousands of spectators dumbfounded when he won a 100-metre run against a veteran racing horse at the end of a week-long sport festival in Qatar this week.

A one-minute film carried by the Qatari Arabic language daily Alraya showed Oscar Pistorius finished the race far ahead of the horse on the final day of the event in Doha that had attracted thousands of athletes from many countries.

Pistorius was born in Johannesburg in 1986 without a fibula in either leg -- the fibula being the smaller of the two bones that run from the knee to the ankle.

Both legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, but he grew up in a "sports-mad family" and played water polo, tennis and rugby.

Pistorius races wearing carbon fibre prosthetic blades and was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the 400 semi-finals though he was disappointed not to make the final.

He brought the curtain down on a summer of thrills in the Olympic Stadium on London this year, when he won the final Paralympic track gold medal with a dominant display in the men's 400 metres.

It was a happy ending for Pistorius who finished the Paralympic Games with an individual gold after failing to successfully defend the 100 and 200 titles he won in Beijing four years ago. He also won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay.

Pistorius finished nearly four seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Blake Leeper who was followed home by David Prince of the United States, while Brazil's Alan Oliveira, who beat the South African in the 200 this week, finished fourth.

"This whole month, this whole season, I've had a lot of challenges and I have a lot to thank my coach for," Pistorius, who also competed in the London Olympics, told Channel Four television.

"I'm so proud, this summer has been a dream come true and I couldn't hope for anything better. It's my 11th time on this track and I wanted to give the crowd something special that they could take home with them."

Things did not go smoothly in the Paralympics either with Pistorius suffering a first loss over 200 metres in nine years after having begun his campaign in scintillating fashion by smashing the 200 metres T44 world record in his heat.

Pistorius ran 21.30, shaving more than half a second off the previous record set by Brazilian Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira in an earlier heat.

However, young Brazilian Alan Oliveira stole his Paralympic T44 200m crown with a powerful run.