Pistorius fails in Olympics qualification

With the Beijing Olympics due to open in five days' time, I'm just following up on the intriguing case of Oscar Pistorius.

If you remember, I did write about him once. He's the double-amputee from South Africa who battled with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for months and then finally winning an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport to allow him to race against able-bodied athletes. More recently, he faced concerns that he could pose a danger to other athletes.

Now the news is out that he has been left out of South Africa's Olympic team for the Beijing Games. After failing to meet the qualifying standard to run in the 400 metres, Pistorius was also left off the 4x400m relay team after Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene confirmed that four other athletes had faster times than him.

Pistorius fell short of the 400m qualifying time of 45.55 seconds, although he has a personal best time of 46.25. Last May, he said that his legal battles had prevented him from focusing on training, and that it might be more realistic to aim at qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. But I hear that he will be competing in the 100, 200 and 400 at the Beijing Paralympics. He holds world records in all three events.

"From the beginning, we knew that he had to qualify," said his manager PeetVan Zyl. "We didn't expect him to be granted any special opportunity or anything. The rules are the rules."