London, Sep 3(ANI): Oscar Pistorius, who won three gold medals at the Beijing Paralympic Games, has blamed Brazil's Alan Oliveira of using longer prosthetic legs after failing to defend his T43/44 200 metres gold medal at the London Paralympic Olympics.
Oliveira pipped Pistorius, also known as the blade runner, with a time of 21.45 seconds to win the gold medal, whereas the South African had to be content with a silver.
In a post-race interview a furious Pistorius indicated that Oliveira, who prevailed in a time of 21.45 seconds, had the advantage of having longer prosthetic legs.
Pistorius held thoughtful reservations about some of his fellow competitors, pointing out that Oliveira and American Blake Leeper had lengthened their prostheses in pursuit of an advantage.
"We're not racing a fair race here. The regulations say that you can make yourself unbelievably high. I think Alan's an unbelievable athlete but I don't think you can come from eight metres behind to win," The Telegraph quoted Pistorius, as saying.
Pistorius had raised the issue before the final race also, saying: "The rules allow them to make themselves longer," he had said before this final. If you look at videos from last year, Alan was shorter than me but now he's taller than me."
"I don't take away from their performances. I think they're great athletes, but it's clear that these guys have very long strides," he added.
The race possessed some fundamental flaws, as Arnu Fourie, Pistorius' fellow South African, had set a world record of his own in the T44 class and but never stood a chance of gold in the final, the paper said.
It was the fault of the classification system that Fourie was even contending in the same race, when his disability, he lost his left leg in a motorboat accident in 2003, was medically recognized as more severe, it added. (ANI)
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