South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius returns to the track on Wednesday, days after he suffered his first 200m defeat in nine years and complained that his competitors had an unfair advantage.
The 25-year-old star, the most high-profile athlete at the London Games after he became the first double-amputee to compete at the Olympics last month, is out to defend his T44 100m title and goes in the heats from 6pm.
Organisers have billed the showpiece straight sprint as the race of the competition, with all eight finalists capable of running under 11 seconds. The field includes Britain’s Jonnie Peacock, the current world record holder with 10.85 seconds.
Peacock, 19, lost his right leg below-the-knee to meningitis at the age of five, and trains under Dan Pfaff, who coached Canada’s Donovan Bailey to Olympic 100m gold in Atlanta in 1996.
Pistorius won the T44 title in Beijing four years ago in a photo finish from his great rival Jerome Singleton of the United States, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intern who won silver in Beijing.
But the “Blade Runner”, so-called because he runs on carbon fibre prostheses, has warned that winning gold again will be tough because of the progress made in the event over the last four years – and because it is not his favoured event.
He told a news conference in London last week that any one of the eight finalists could win, adding: “If I can finish in the top three I will be happy. It’s important to note that I haven’t run a 100m personal best in five years.