Oscar Pistorius: A Paralympic legend

Artwork courtesy of Rivy11

Just a few months ago the Blade Runner was being hailed as one of, if not the greatest, Paralympian of all time after breaking the world T44 400m record on the last day of London 2012. But today, less than six months on, it has been reported that Oscar Pistorius is being charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after she was found dead in his home with multiple gunshot wounds.

For many years he has been hailed across the world as extremely influential and a pioneer for disabled sport. He became the first double amputee to compete at the Olympic Games in London as he won through to the 400 metres semi-finals in his second-best personal time of 45.44 seconds. Pistorius failed to make the final, but did make the South African team for the show-piece 4x400 metres final and went on to carry his country's flag in the closing ceremony.

Despite his Olympic exploits the 'fastest man in the world on no legs' will always be remembered first and foremost as a Paralympic athlete. He shocked the world back in 2004 as a curly-haired 17-year-old as he stormed to the 200 metres title in world record time, and from then on he never looked back.

In Beijing four-and-a-half years ago he completed an unprecedented treble of T44 100m, 200m and 400m gold, just months after an IAAF founding ruled his prosthetic limbs to be illegal in able-bodied sports. 

It was not long before that decision was rightly overturned and he wrote himself into the record books as he ran for his nation in the able-bodied 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu, winning a silver medal in the 4 x 400m relay, although he did not run in the final.

Oscar Pistorius’ Paralympic medal record

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Athens 2004	T44 200m	0	T44 100m
Beijing 2008	T44 100, 200 + 400m	0	0
London 2012	T44 400m + T42-46 4 x 100m	T44 200m	0

Pistorius' performances in London were not quite as good as he might have hoped for, even though he would have actually been pleased with his bronze medal in the 100m. His emphatic Paralympic world record in the 400m was breath-taking, and the fact that his time of 46.68 seconds broke the record and his personal best  against able-bodied athletes is 45.07 proves how far above his competitors he has been. 

There was a shock in the 200m, as he was knocked into silver by Brazilian Alan Oliveira. After complaining about the length of his opponents blades, he later apologised for the comments and said that he was rash in the heat of the moment. 

His standing, especially in South Africa, has been increased by his outstanding charity work and multiple public appearances. However after this morning's events advertising featuring the 26-year-old has already been removed all over South Africa.

Some reports have suggested that Pistorius shot 29-year-old model Steenkamp by accident thinking that she was an intruder. He tweeted three months ago: "Nothing like getting home to hear the washing machine on and thinking its an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry!". 

There is a very high crime rate in South Africa and many of the middle-class people who live in high-security complexes live in fear. However the South African police have expressed surprise at these rumours and have confirmed that they have nothing to do with them. 

Tomorrow morning (07:00 GMT) Pistorius will appear in a magistrate's court as he attempts to claim bail, but the police have said that they will oppose it. 

On a purely sporting note the 'Blade Runner' will always be remembered as one of the greatest Paralympians ever, although the coming months will decide what legacy he leaves behind. 

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Wales hoping to put criticism behind them against the All Blacks

Centre Jonathan Davies will return to the Wales side tomorrow to face New Zealand after a spell out with injury and believes they can prove their critics wrong. 

He said: “We just want to concentrate on ourselves, obviously there is criticism coming out, in the public and the press. What people have been saying about us, we don’t really care. We know where we’ve gone wrong and we’ve just need to put that right on Saturday.”

Wales have lost their last five Test matches, including defeats to Argentina and Samoa in the past couple of weeks, and the team are finding themselves under increasing pressure.

The return of Davies from an injury lay-off is a boost for Warren Gatland’s men, but they face a difficult task in trying to get their first win over the All Blacks for 59 years. 

There have been some memorable matches between the two nations in the recent past, most notably in 2004 and the 2003 World Cup.

Wales have had their task made even harder after losing dangerous wing George North to injury. 

His replacement Liam Williams will win only his second cap, but assistant coach Robin McBryde said: "There is no denying it is a blow [to lose North], but we are fortunate to have someone like Liam, who has performed consistently well for the Scarlets, to fill in for him.”

Wales’ last five Tests

Australia	27-19	Wales
Australia	25-23	Wales
Australia	20-19	Wales
Wales	12-26	Argentina
Wales	19-26	Samoa

The tourists also have injury problems after inspirational fly-half Dan carter pulled up with a leg injury during training on Thursday. 

This would be a huge loss for the All Blacks, especially given the great form that international rugby’s all-time highest points scorer is on. 

Even without Carter to go up against, it is still a momentous task for Wales. The Red Dragons’ points difference from their last six meetings with New Zealand of -124 proves that point.

Perfect Paralympic Night For GB As Weir Takes Third Gold And Peacock Beats Pistorius

David Weir and his wheel-chair lit up the Olympic Stadium on a balmy night as he took his third 2012 gold medal in the T54 men's 800m final to become Britain's first triple gold medal winner on the track in these Games, just hours after Hannah Cockcroft completed her T34 sprint double. There was more success to come for the home nation and it came in the form of a dramatic T44 men's 100m final in the battle of the blade runners. 

The men's 100m T44 final was always going to be the night's show-piece event with Paralympic GB runner Jonnie Peacock going into the race as the 2/1 favourite and world record holder with a personal best of 10.85 seconds. There were plenty of other big names in the field though, none more known than Oscar Pistorius, who is the face of these Games. The start was crucial and it was the home favourite who flew out of the blocks as Pistorius started sluggishly. It was American Richard Browne who went with the Briton and even though it looked close at one stage, the 19-year-old powered away from the rest of the field to win in a Paralympic record of 10.90 seconds. Browne took silver in 11.03 as Pistorius was run out of the medals, finishing in fourth in 11.17 behind team-mate Arnu Fourie who took bronze in 11.08.

The great South African Pistorius was gracious in defeat: "What we have seen tonight is the beginning of a great 100m sprinter. Not just a great Paralympian, but a great sprinter. I was hoping to finish in the medals but the 100 metres is just not my thing. Also my room-mate Arnu pipped me on the line so well done to him. The 100 has always been a big event and he (Peacock) just blew us away, the first sub 11 second final in a Paralympic Games."

Just minutes before Weir went in search of his third gold medal and the 'Weir-wolf' was put under pressure from the off, although he sat in position 'A' in second place as the racers took to the inside lane. Lixin Zhang of China held the early lead and looked as though he could hold on as the athletes went into the home straight for the second and last time, however the crowd roared Weir on and he stormed through to take victory  in 1.37.63 from Switzerland's Marcel Hug, who was by then in lane three. An amazing track treble, and the world's best wheel-chair racer will go for marathon gold this week-end. 

The 33-year-old Briton was delighted with his latest win: "That was hard work out there. This one is for my children, its for my kids tonight. I had to dig deep. Of course you do (have doubts) and you can't underestimate your opponents and I knew that the Chinese guy has the best top speed out of anyone. I knew I had to get on the wheel, whether it was him or Marcel. I am tired now and I need to recover for the next two days."

British Gymnastics Doing Rhythmic No Favours

In the midst of a very successful Olympic Games for host nation Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been some riveting performances by their gymnasts. The acclaimed bronze medal for the men's team was a highlight and two bronze medals and a silver medal followed in the individual apparatus finals. Now it is the turn for the host nation's rhythmic gymnasts, an event which has traditionally received little support or coverage in Britain.

The media did get involved when controversy surrounded the GB rhythmic group's efforts to qualify for the Games. In the London test event a knot in a ribbon prevented the team from making the qualifying score set to them by British Gymnastics. The target score was 45.223 over their two routines but they came up just 0.273 short as BG confirmed that they would not take part in the Games. The group won an appeal at an independent hearing in London as it was decided that the criteria was not made clear to them. 

All of this controversy was not even needed as Britain already had a place at London 2012 courtesy of being the host nation. However British Gymnastics decided to impose a qualifying mark on the group to ensure that they were up to Olympic standard anyway. The Olympic motto that it is 'taking part that counts' was almost blown out of the window as GB originally failed to meet their own governing body's requirement. That their appeal won through was something of a victory and BG had to re-track their original decision and said that it 'will now nominate a rhythmic group.'

Despite winning their appeal the group must have still felt let down that British Gymnastics felt the need to make them prove themselves when they were trying to become the first ever British group to compete in an Olympics.They are self-funded as UK Sport cut their funding with all training now paid for by the gymnasts and their parents. All six members of the group are former individual athletes who joined together in an attempt to reach London. Three members of the squad, Rachel Smith, Lynne Hutchinson and Francesca Fox, are former British champions while Jade Faulkner has taken British individual apparatus titles. Georgina Cassar will make her own piece of history as she becomes the first Gibraltan gymnast to represent Team GB.

Great Britain has also sent an individual representative in Welsh competitor Francesca Jones. She has a solid record that includes a Commonwealth Games silver medal with her hoop routine in Delhi two years ago. She  is the current Welsh and British champion and could do well in the Wembley Arena this week. Jones used to be in full-time training at Lilleshall sports centre but had her funding cut as British Gymnastics stopped national rhythmic gymnastics training. The rhythmic training area at Lilleshall was given to the men's artistic team and all national training funded by BG was stopped as GB coach Bulgarian Nadya Alexandrova was made redundant. Now the only national training is run by the English, Welsh and Scottish boards.

Despite maybe being seen by many as loose wheels the British rhythmic gymnasts are on a mission to ensure that that is not the case. Group member Faulkner said that: "We need to show everyone we deserve our place, that we didn't get the place just through winning through court. [We want] to show that we can do two days of competition consistently." No British rhythmic gymnasts were present at the ground-breaking opening ceremony and a British Gymnastics spokesman explained: "The group will be completing their pre-Games preparation at Bath University and not moving into the village/London until after the opening -as they do not begin competition until the final week of the Games."

However British number one Jones was also absent from the ceremony amidst speculation that BG did not pay enough money for her to attend. When asked about the truth behind these rumours the governing body failed to respond. There has often been controversy surrounding rhythmic gymnastics in Britain but it usually goes unnoticed as the sport is almost always under the radar. In this year's British Championships in the junior competition the spectators were left in the dark as Megan Balabey's score was changed overnight as a result of an appeal but the alteration was not made public. When West Lothian's Lauren Brash realised that she had been moved from silver to bronze position she was reduced to tears.

There have also been rumours circulating that the British 2011 under 12 champion Balabey was actually a year too old when she won her title. When asked if this is true and whether they tried to cover this up when they found out, British Gymnastics once again did not respond. In a sport that is usually just family-orientated in this country; supporters and coaches often seem to be left unsure of goings on.

While the artistic gymnasts have had excellent success in the North Greenwich Arena the rhythmic girls will be hoping to prove their critics wrong in the Wembley Arena. Despite having minimal funding and support from the powers that be, credit has to be given to the British gymnasts who have fought their way to London in the face of adversity. 

Paramedics at the Racecourse

In an age of health and safety regulations one may think that horse racing would not be one of the more dangerous sports. But this would be an inaccurate statement. Every time a jockey rides a horse, especially in a jump race, they know there is a chance they could sustain a serious injury.

Last year for example, 22-year-old jockey Peter Toole fell at the first fence at Aintree on Grand National day while riding 100-1 outsider Classic Fly. He sustained serious injuries including bleeding on the right side of his brain and had to be put into a medically-induced coma. 

Just three days later amateur jockey Richard Hawkins was knocked out when he fell off Tiger Dream in a handicap hurdle at Taunton. Like Toole, he also had to be treated in intensive care before making a full recovery.The same year young amateur jockey Willie Twiston-Davies broke his leg in an unlikely fall and had to be taken quickly to Warwick hospital for an operation. Despite the severity of their falls, not one of Twiston-Davies, Toole and Hawkins suffered career-ending injuries.

These stories may have not had such successful endings had it not been for a group of people who seem to go rather unnoticed at a racecourse. This is despite being crucial in helping keep jockeys safe, especially in the event of a fall.

There are always plenty of paramedics scattered around the stands, the grounds and the jockeys’ weighing room on race day and they have more incidents to deal with than people expect. At Uttoxeter racecourse two weeks ago one paramedic said that: “We (paramedics) have had to work with jockeys regularly in the past on race days.” He also said that the most common injuries sustained by jockeys are to the spinal area or the shoulders. This is usually caused by falling backwards off racehorses of which some can travel at over 40 miles per hour.

Another medic said that doctors “work closely with the vets” who also attend race day to look after the horses. They also play a crucial role as horses are injured even more often than the jockeys as a result of their falls. This was shown last month when five horses died at the Cheltenham Festival and a further two at the Grand National.

The medic also said that: “An ambulance and a doctor always follow the horses around the track”.

But it is not just jockeys that paramedics attend racecourses in order to deal with; they also have to help injured spectators. Injuries happen to spectators surprisingly often at a racecourse, and usually from relatively mundane incidents. Although strange things can happen, for example a horse jumped into the crowd, injuring seven people during a Steeplechase in Victoria, Australia.

But at Uttoxeter races a St John’s Ambulance paramedic said that the majority of accidents involving spectators at racecourses are ‘drink-related’. He said he has had to attend to a couple of freak accidents: “There was an incident last year when someone took strong medication, passed out and caused themselves a head injury.

They were knocked out and we had to take them to the nearest hospital.”

He added that at a racecourse such as Uttoxeter fewer accidents occur than at higher-attended meetings such as Cheltenham or Ascot. He said that: “Uttoxeter is not usually very packed, and normally not many people come here.” As paramedics are still kept busy at a small meeting like this, then that shows how important they can be. 

Watch horse jump into crowd at Steeplechase Meeting Victoria:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gyFdJB34c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT8Mc_SrtSw