Strong Sunday for Chinese Paralympic team China landed two golds in rowing and asserted its dominance in table tennis as Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius failed to defend the first of his three sprint titles. The evening session saw “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius go in the T44 200m after setting a new world best of 21.30sec in Saturday’s heat.
The 25-year-old is the Games’ biggest name after he became the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics and previously won the100m, 200m and 400m in Beijing. However, he failed to retain his 200 metre title on Sunday night after he was beaten by the Brazilian Alan Oliveira who finished 0.07 of a second infront of the \"Blade runner.\" The South African Pistorius did not take defeat well and criticised the International Paralympic committee for not measuring and standardising the length of the athlete\'s blades which he claims gave other competitors an advantage. Oscar Pistorius said: \"The guys are just running ridiculous times. We\'ve known (about the longer blades) for about a month. I\'ve brought it up with the IPC but nothing\'s been done about it. I believe in the fairness of sport, I believe in running on the right length.\" The gold medal winner replied : \"He is not a bad loser, he is a great athlete. I am just sad with the interview where he said my blades were too big. For me he is a really great idol and to hear that from a great idol is difficult.\"
He later congratulated the winner on Twitter saying: \"Congratulating Alan of Brazil for his 200m win.. The fastest last 80m I have ever seen to take it on the line. pic!\"
Rower Huang Cheng provided a major upset by storming to victory in the men’s arms-only (ASM1x) single sculls to inflict the first defeat of British favourite Tom Aggar’s five-year international career.
The 30-year-old blitzed the field to finish the 1km course west of London in 4min 52.36sec, three seconds ahead of Australia’s Erik Horrie, while Aleksey Chuvashev of Russia came third.
Huang said he was “very excited” by his win and beating Aggar’s world record in qualifying. The British rower said he was “devastated” to have lost his unbeaten record and Paralympic title.
“Going in I was the favourite on paper and had great preparation. But when I asked for more today it just wasn’t there. The standard has moved on massively and I just wasn’t myself today. I will be back. I’m a fighter through and through,” he added.
Huang’s victory was one of two rowing golds for China, with with world champions Fei Tianming and Lou Xiaoxian winning the trunk and arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) and posting a world record time in qualifying.
The victories (plus three wins in six of the 11 gold medal matches played in table tennis by late afternoon) helped China stretch its lead at the top of the overall medal table after they started the day with 56 medals including 20 gold.
In the women’s arms-only (ASW1x) single sculls, two-time world champion Alla Lysenko of Ukraine took gold while Britain gave the home crowd something to cheer about by taking the legs, trunks and arms (LTAMix4+) mixed coxed four.
As the curtain came down on track cycling, China tied with Britain on five golds but the host nation topped the table with more silver and bronze.
In the mixed C1-5 team sprint over three laps, China set a new world record to beat Britain and the United States, while New Zealand’s Philippa Gray and Laura Thompson took the 3km individual pursuit for blind and visually impaired riders in a new world best.
Anthony Kappes and Craig MacLean took the all-British final of the men’s individual sprint in the same category.
In athletics, Switzerland’s Edith Wolf won the T54 5,000m, crossing the line just ahead of Shirley Reilly of the United States and Christie Dawes of Australia Kelly Cartwright of Australia took gold in the women’s F42/44 long jump, setting a new record after jumping 4.38m, which in combined class field events is converted into points.
Her score of 1,030 was good enough to beat Britain’s New Zealand-born Stef Reid, who competed for Canada in Beijing, and France’s Marie-Amelie le Fur, into silver and bronze.
Britain’s David Weir is to renew his rivalry with Australia’s Kurt Fearnley and the Swiss “Silver Bullet” Marcel Hug in the T54 5,000m final.
Meanwhile, Games organizers defended their decision not to drug-test every medal winner, insisting that the procedures were tight enough to prevent dope-cheats prospering.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said testing at least one medalist and random checks on other competitors were enough of a deterrent to prevent violations.