Oscar Pistorius will become the first amputee athlete to compete at the able-bodied World Championships, after being named in South Africa's squad.
The 24-year-old double-amputee, who competes on carbon fibre legs, will race in the 400m and 4x400m relay
The event begins in Daegu, South Korea on 27 August.
Women's 800m world champion Caster Semenya, who was cleared to run last year after an 11-month lay-off because of gender tests, is also in the squad.
Pistorius said: "I have dreamt for such a long time of competing in a major championships and this is a very proud moment in my life.
"It will be a great day for me when I set out on the track in Daegu and I hope to do my country proud.
"This will be the highest-profile and most prestigious able-bodied event which I have ever competed in, and I will face the highest-calibre of athletes from across the planet."
An International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) ban was overturned in 2008, allowing Pistorius to compete against able-bodied athletes.
The IAAF's ruling that his "blades" gave him an unfair advantage was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Pistorius clocked a personal best time of 45.07 seconds in Italy last month to qualify just inside the cut-off time.
"If I manage to make it through the heats, I would be thrilled," he added.
"A good performance for me would be to be consistent through the heats. If I ran anywhere close to my PB, I would be delighted."
Semenya, 20, will return to the event where she sprang to prominence in 2009, winning the 800m in Berlin in the year's fastest time.
She has struggled with a back injury following the lay-off, after which she was cleared to continue competing.
The chairman of Athletics South Africa, James Evans, said: "We selected all those athletes who fulfilled the qualification criteria.
"With 11 athletes competing for the first time at this level we are very clearly looking to 2012 and beyond."
Men's 800m world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, 400m hurdler LJ van Zyl and Olympic and world long jump silver-medallist Khotso Mokoena were also named in the 26-strong squad.
No comments:
Post a Comment