Shock silver for Pistorius

Shock silver for Pistorius 

02 Sep 2012 22:59:35

Oscar Pistorius © Gallo Images

A surprise silver medal for Oscar Pistorius on the track and a silver medal for Charles Bouwer took South Africa's medal tally to ten at the London Paralympic Games on Sunday.

Pistorius, after setting a T43 world record of 21.30 seconds in the heats the previous night, clocked 21.52 in the 200m T43-44 final to lose his title from both Athens and Beijing to Alan Oliveira of Brazil.

In third place was Blake Leeper from the US, in 22.46.

A stunned stadium saw Oliveira come from way behind to just pip Pistorius over the line.

Arnu Fourie, a single leg amputee, who finished fourth in the same final, set a new T44 world record of 22.49.

Earlier, swimmer Charles Bouwer pocketed his second medal at the Games, coming second in the 100m freestyle S13 final on Sunday evening.

With a gold medal already tucked away from the 50m freestyle S13, Bouwer was beaten by Ihar Boki of Belarus, who broke the world record for the second time in one day, touching in 51.91 seconds.

Bouwer was a second behind him in 52.97, followed by another Belarussian, Aleksandr Golintovskii, in 53.45.

"I knew from the beginning, when Boki went out so quickly this morning, that it was going to be a tough final for me," Bouwer said after the final.

"I went out too slowly and if I'd just gone out half a second faster, I would have had the gold, because I came back really strongly.

"These things happen and I got a silver medal so I'm really happy." Bouwer would be back in the pool on Monday in the 100m backstroke S13 heats.

Earlier on the track, Hilton Langenhoven won his men's 400m T12 heat and qualified fastest for Tuesday's semifinals clocking 49.86 seconds.

With each runner being visually impaired, two lanes were allocated to each runner in this event – one for the athlete and one for their guide.

South Africa have ten medals – two gold , four silver and four bronze medals, and are in 19th position on the table with one more week of the Paralympics remaining.