Athletics: Pistorius disqualified for running out of correct lane

Oscar Pistorius has overcome more than most to maintain his ambition of running in the Olympics, but the man who propels himself around the track on artificial limbs had to acknowledge defeat in Sheffield yesterday in the face of the most basic of athletic rules: you cannot run out of your lane.

The 20-year-old South African, whose performance on a perilously waterlogged Don Valley track was being filmed by the International Association of Athletics Federations, even managed to defeat the Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner in a British Grand Prix 400 metres that took place in a steady downpour - the American slipped on his blocks and failed to finish - but after coming home seventh and last in 47.65sec behind the winner Angelo Taylor, who clocked 45.26, the man who holds Paralympic world records at 100, 200 and 400m learnt his efforts had been annulled.

Pistorius accepted that he had infringed the line on two occasions - but he had drawn encouragement from an event that had offered him his heart's desire - competition on a level playing field with the world's best.

"It was a great experience to race here, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity," he said. "It was a great learning curve for me and it made me realise that I have a lot of work still to do to achieve my aims. I need to take 0.8sec off my personal best to achieve the qualifying time. I'm pretty confident I can do that."

Having moved in March to ban Pistorius from racing against non-disabled rivals, the IAAF has been forced to reconsider, under threat of legal action from the Pistorius camp. So the governing body has decided to analyse the South African's performances to establish whether the artificial legs give him an advantage.

Part of the IAAF evaluation will centre on the way Pistorius runs his races, getting off to a slow start but maintaining a high speed to the finish. The natural tendency with able-bodied athletes is to slow towards the finish as lactic acid builds up in the legs.

The IAAF is aware that it is in danger of appearing the villain of the piece, discriminating against a man of undoubted courage and ability to deny him his dreams. But Nick Davies, the IAAF spokesman, insists that the federation is working to safeguard the interests of the sport in general and those of Pistorius' potential opponents in particular. There have been complaints about his "legs" from fellow Paralympians, notably those who have lost only one leg.

The situation has caused debate throughout the sport, with 11-times Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson maintaining that Pistorius' ambition to compete at the Olympics risks reducing the Paralympics to the status of a secondary event.

She said: "Paralympic sport has always been about elite sport. It has not been a matter of 'I can't make the Olympics, so I'll do the Paralympics', and I don't want it to become like that."

Pistorius arrived in Sheffield in combative mood, having run in Friday's B-race at the Rome Golden League meeting, finishing second in 46.90sec. The presence of hidden cameras to record information about his performance, which was passed on to Rome's Sports Science Institute, angered him to the point where he spoke out against the IAAF's behaviour.

He said: "I think it would have been a lot better for them to work with me, instead of against me. My job is to perform on the track and theirs is to be a professional federation. But they are going about this like an FBI investigation."

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