The 24-year-old visually-impaired sprinter from Derry in Northern Ireland will compete in his specialist event - the 100 metres - after he claimed victory over the distance at the Irish Nationals this weekend with a relatively modest time of 10.52sec.

It comes after Smyth set a personal best of 10.22 in Florida earlier this year and means that he is the second Paralympic athlete to qualify for the prestigious able-bodied World Championships in South Korea after double leg amputee Oscar Pistorius was named in the South African squad yesterday.

Pistorius, who will compete in both the 400m and 4x400m relay at the event, had backed fellow Paralympian Smyth to qualify for the event earlier this month and admitted he was a huge fan of man from Derry.

"Jason is on fire at the moment," Pistorius said.

"He's an unbelievably dedicated athlete, I follow him quite a lot and although we haven't met, he's definitely someone I respect."

Smyth made history last year when he became the first Paralympian to compete in the European Championships in Barcelona, reaching the 100m semi-finals.

It followed a highly successful 2008 where he won gold at the Beijing Paralympics in both the 100 metre and 200m events - setting world records in both.

But Smyth will not be the first visually-impaired athlete to compete in the World Championships.

American Marla Runyan competed at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, finishing 10th in the final of the 1500m.

She also went on to compete at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.

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