South Africa's Oscar Pistorius is to meet the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) after he lost his first T44 200m race in nine years and said the length of his rivals' carbon fibre blades was unfair. The 25-year-old runner, the first double-amputee to run at the Olympics and the most high-profile athlete at the London Paralympics, hit out after he was beaten on the line on Sunday night by Brazil's Alan Oliveira.
Pistorius, who runs on J-shaped "Cheetah" prostheses, complained that his fellow competitors, including Oliveira, were "a lot taller" and he was unable to compete with their stride length. "You saw how far he (Oliveira) came back (down the home straight). We aren't racing a fair race... The regulations allow that athletes can make themselves unbelievably high," he said.
He added that he had raised the issue with the IPC but it had fallen "on deaf ears". His complaint came amid lingering questions about whether carbon fibre blades give amputee runners an advantage and follows Pistorius' successful challenge of a ban against him running in non-disabled races because his blades were unfair.
IPC media and communications director Craig Spence revealed that Pistorius had telephoned him directly six weeks ago about the blade length of one of his rivals but was told there were no infringements. The athlete was not Oliveira, he added.
Spence attributed Pistorius' comments to the disappointment of losing his first 200m race in nine years and said the IPC was "more than willing" to hear his concerns "in a less hostile environment" than a packed Olympic Stadium. IPC regulations stipulate the maximum length of prostheses for amputee athletes in T42 (above-the-knee), T43 (double below-the-knee) and T44 (single leg below-the knee) track races and they have to be proportionate to body length. Pistorius later apologised for the timing of his comments, although not the substance.