Sour grapes? I can't imagine the brazilians blades are above the limit, that would be easily identified pre-race checks.
Hmm, dunno exactly what the regs are, but apparantly Oliveira is four inches taller on his blades than he would be with standard body proportions, so Pistorious may have a point.
If the regs are exploitable and have a built in margin, then surely Pistorious will be doing the same?
Can anyone clarify?
I think he may have been a bit silly there. If the Brazilian was allowed to race, treat it like Ellie Simmons.
And WIN.
The Brazilian's winning time was slower than Pistorious's PB. He was beaten.
I agree, not very gracious.
Anyone see the Olivia Breen interview after the women's T38 100m final yesterday?
Don't think I've ever seen anyone happier with 5th place. 😀
The stupid journalists have misunderstood Oscar, or gone for the sensationlist angle. He didn't say the guys blades were too long, he said regs are not right.
Definitely sour grapes.
[edit]was a damn exciting race!
He definitely came across as a sore loser, but we were thinking about it, and sorting out fair and equal regulations must be a bit of a minefield..?
Governing body say that all was well - all blades are checked before races etc.
But, agree with DezB - the reading here at MM towers is that Pistorious has issues with the regulations - he stated very clearly that he'd queried blade length with the governing body, more than once?
I wonder if he spent so much time showing how his were no better than actual legs (so he could be in the olympics too) and forgot about maximising within the para rules ?
Surely a standard blade that's issued to all athletes would level the playing field
I don't think standard blades would work due to different heights and physique.
I'm not sure "fair" and para classifications will ever be hand in glove - which is a problem as the paralympics seems to be moving from a sport-for all mentality to full on competitive arena. I watched the swimming last night and that amazing dude without any arms at all came second in the 100m breaststroke to a lad missing "just" his fingers and toes. Breaststroke, no arms - just amazing. He finishes the race by head butting the end at full speed! But he is never going to beat the Gold medal winner no matter how much he trains. In comparison to that obvious discrepancy Pistorias's issues are pretty minimal.
I can see Pistorius's point, but think that he has to learn to play the game regardless of what the rules are. By that I mean if someone is using long blades and they are beating him - he needs to run faster.
One suggestion for negating that would be to add weights to the blades to make them weigh the equivalent of a similar length of lower leg.
This was just posted by the Science of Sport on tiwtter, gives the number of strides by both athletes. Would be expected that if he was using longer blades then would have less strides but doesnt.
"To break it down: Pistorius first 100m = 49, 2nd 100m = 43. Oliveira first 100m = 52, 2nd 100m = 46. Only relevant because OP raised it"
This was just posted by the Science of Sport on tiwtter, gives the number of strides by both athletes. Would be expected that if he was using longer blades then would have less strides but doesnt.
"To break it down: Pistorius first 100m = 49, 2nd 100m = 43. Oliveira first 100m = 52, 2nd 100m = 46. Only relevant because OP raised it"
Wow, perhaps he has a point but does come across as sour grapes.
Having said that, he claims to have complained about it before so I guess by talking about it when he did maximises his point. Gist appeared to claiming people could run with longer blades than they would naturally have as legs and that this was skewing the competition.
Slightly weakened by the Brazilian running slower than Oscar's time in the semis and taking more strides than him as well.
Will be an ongoing issue with Paralympic sports as technology improves will become almost like F1 as people seek the marginal gains.
Apparently the length of any blade is dictated by the allowable height of the athlete with the blades on, which can be no more than their wingspan middle finger to middle finger.
This posed a problem when they had a quadraplegic runner at a previous event (not a tasteless joke, all part of Dame Tanni's pre-race commentary on 5Live).
Mr Bolt your a great big cheat with your legs longer than everyone elses.
Oscar should have a word with lance or his boss....who was it bruyneel he will be back winning in no time
He may have a point though- presumably there are laws governing the maximum thickness of soles on running shoes as well.
He came across really badly . In the actual race he gave the impression that he like the commentators had assumed his victory was certain and therefore did not push himself. It's easy to be Mr nice guy when you win clearly harder when you lose.
A work colleague Once did a carbon fibre insert for running shoes .....banned by the governing (twits) in about 30 seconds
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the regulations, I think his comments were poorly judged.
In any sport, the competitors have much more resource and energy to push the boundaries of the regs. The regs are always playing catch up. I would hazard a guess that the people setting the rules for paralympic sports don't have the resources that governing bodies of other sports have.
The previous day, he set a WR much lower than the winning time in the final, and suggested he had been easing down, so even more was possible.
If he'd even have got close to his WR time, he'd have taken the gold, so Oliveira's performance was irrelevant.
Having said that, it's tough for driven athletes like Pistorius to be interviewed seconds after a crushing disappointment and manage to stay composed and dignified.
I'm not sure "fair" and para classifications will ever be hand in glove - which is a problem as the paralympics seems to be moving from a sport-for all mentality to full on competitive arena.
Indeed - notable that several swimmers got reclassified due to perceived increased physical function, which makes you realise that a lot of the paralympics is simply a "handicap" competition. Only really the wheelchair events (and a few others like goalball where "able bodied" athletes could compete on an equal footing) where the competitors are the absolute best at what they do.
As for Pistorious, silly comment given that he still holds the WR, and that he's only going to encourage new questioning of the advantage he gets over the able-bodied when competing in non-para events.
My girlfriend can relate to him, we're off on holiday tomorrow and she hasn't stopped whining about a Brazilian involving the wrong sized blade?
This and the guy getting carted out of the velodrome - not a good advert for paralympian sportsmanship.
Indeed - notable that several swimmers got reclassified due to perceived increased physical function, which makes you realise that a lot of the paralympics is simply a "handicap" competition. Only really the wheelchair events (and a few others like goalball where "able bodied" athletes could compete on an equal footing) where the competitors are the absolute best at what they do.
This is why i find it hard to get into some of the paralympics - seems very hard to define what is and isn't a 'fair' contest.
If he'd even have got close to his WR time, he'd have taken the gold, so Oliveira's performance was irrelevant.
and this is why it sounded such sour grapes; he lost because he didnt run as fast as he himself is capable of, not because someone else was unfairly aided to run quicker than he could possibly do.