Oscar Pistorius, the first amputee ever to compete at the World Athletics Championships, was chopped from the South Africa 4x400m relay team for last night’s final in Korea.
Pistorius was one of the four runners who helped South Africa reach the final in Friday’s heats, but having posted the slowest leg on that occasion he was dropped from the team for the final.
His teammates eventually finished second behind the United States quartet – ensuring that Pistorius would still receive a silver medal for his efforts.
Pistorius had both legs amputated below the knee when he was a toddler due to a birth defect which left him with no lower leg bones.
He has been a somewhat controversial figure in world athletics, with the international athletics body initially ruling that his prosthetic leg “blades” gave him an unfair advantage, a decision which was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2008.
His silver medal was an incredible first for a so-called disabled athletic, but judging from messages posted on his Twitter page, he was in no mood to celebrate:
