Pistorius angry after surprise loss

The South African looked to have the gold in the bag as he came off the bend in the lead and raced clear down the home straight, but Brazilian Alan reeled him in to take gold in the T44 200m in 21.45 seconds.

Pistorius, a Paralympic icon, came home in second in 21.52secs with stunned quiet from the 80,000 spectators greeting the result.

Pistorius made it clear he did not feel he was running on a level playing field, with some of his competitors’ running blades longer than he believes they ought to be.

“As I said yesterday, the IPC don’t want to listen,” he said. “The guys’ legs are unbelievably long.

“Not taking away from Alan’s performance, he’s a great athlete, but these guys are a lot taller and you can’t compete (with the) stride length.

“You saw how far he came back. We aren’t racing a fair race. I gave it my best.

“The IPC have their regulations. The regulations [allow] that athletes can make themselves unbelievably high.

“We’ve tried to address the issue with them in the weeks up to this and it’s just been falling on deaf ears.

“You saw Blake Leeper (on Saturday) when the guy came down literally overnight, made his blades longer. His knee height is like four inches higher than it should be.

“The guys are just running ridiculous times and they’re able to do so.

“I think Alan’s a great athlete but...I run just over 10 metres per second, I don’t know how you can come back, watching the replay, from eight metres behind on the 100 to win.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, Para-archer Danielle Brown admitted she almost buckled under pressure after squeezing into the semi-finals at the London 2012 Paralympics – but she vowed not to make the same mistake again as she bids to defend her crown.

The 22-year-old made a solid start in her quarter-final match against Maria Rubio Larrion of Spain, taking a 2-0 advantage in the first set but after the second was tied, she allowed her opponent to level before eventually securing a 6-4 victory in the fifth and final set.

It was an uncharacteristically nervous performance by the world No 1 from Lothersdale but she has booked a semi-final berth with Marina Lyzhnikova and could well face fellow Briton Mel Clarke, who also reached the last four, in the final.

But Brown, who became the first Paralympian to compete in an able-bodied event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, is only too aware that improvements must be made.

“I’ve been shooting really well in practice but I don’t really know what happened, letting her back into the match,” said Brown. “It must have been the nerves.

“I was a bit disappointed with how I shot but I got through which was the main thing. It’s highlighted a few things that I need to work on for the next match but it is a good place to be because it’s better than being complacent.”

Will Bayley admitted he let the London 2012 occasion get to him as he was forced to settle for a Paralympic table tennis silver medal yesterday.

Sheffield-based Bayley arrived in the gold-medal match a strong favourite to take the title having beaten his opponent Jochen Wollmert in nine of their last 10 meetings.

However, despite the best efforts of a raucous ExCeL crowd – the likes of which were not even seen for the Olympics – the German just refused to follow the script. Bayley, 24, was all action, responding to the crowd’s singing of his name with chest pumps and clenched fists aplenty but ultimately he was out-thought by the reigning champion.

Despite winning the second set Bayley eventually went down 3-1 and, after breaking down in tears, had to be consoled by his German rival.

Six years of six hours of training a day came down to one match and Bayley admitted he had somewhat blown his golden opportunity.

“Maybe the occasion got to me,” he said. “I wanted it, perhaps a bit too much but it wasn’t to be. I had never experienced anything like that crowd and it is gutting to have lost because I feel like I let my family and friends down as well as my coach. To be honest, I can’t believe he has won, he hasn’t won a tournament since Beijing and then he wins this.”

Peter Finbow helped Great Britain to the brink of the wheelchair basketball quarter-finals with a comprehensive 87-58 victory over Poland at the Basketball Arena. Great Britain lost their opening two games but bounced back in style against Colombia and were far superior against Poland meaning a win against Japan today will see them through – and they could even lose and still advance.

Finbow believes Great Britain – whose team also includes Barnsley’s Ian Sagar – now have the wind in their sails as they start to turn their attentions to the knockout stages.

“We were coming into this game full of confidence, the (opening) game against Germany is well and truly out of the system now,” said 37-year-old Finbow.

Jessica-Jane Applegate won ParalympicsGB’s third gold medal in the pool while James Clegg claimed the first of a family double as he took bronze before his family immediately dashed off to see his sister Libby win silver in the athletics. There was a bronze medal too for 16-year-old Hannah Russell.

Hosts Great Britain finished at the top of the Paralympic Games track cycling medal table.

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