Paralympic Games: Oscar Pistorious cries foul after surprise defeat in 200m

Published on 03/09/2012 03:49

OSCAR Pistorius complained vociferously about the length of his opponent’s blades after he was beaten into second by Brazil’s Alan Oliveira in the men’s 200 metres final.

South African Pistorius streaked into an early lead and was almost ten metres ahead as the athletes came into the home straight, before the Brazilian launched an astonishing fightback.

Oliveira ate up the ground and surged past Pistorius in the final few metres. The underdog finished with a time of 21.45 seconds, seven hundredths of a second ahead of Pistorius, who won gold in the event four years ago in Beijing, with American Blake Leeper in third.

Pistorius said: “This is a really strong race of mine, and as I said in the mixed zone, the size of some of the other guys’ legs are unbelievably long.

“Not taking anything away from Alan, he’s a great athlete, but the guys who do the measuring in the courtrooms, some of these guys are a lot taller and you can’t compete for stride length.

“We’re not racing a fair race.”