The South African double amputee (pictured above), who plans to seek medals at both the Olympics and Paralympics this summer, was sanguine about his performance in an event where he has been competing since 2005.

But the athlete who ended the day without a cloud in his sky was British sprinter Graeme Ballard, who completed the double in the T36 100m and 200m, setting a world record of 11.98 in the first event and winning the second in a personal best of 25.12 in front of a full capacity crowd of 5,000, many of whom where youngsters.

It was a sensational day's performance by the patriotically initialled double Olympian in the cerebral palsy category who lives in the relatively local town of Chorley.

Ballard's was one of four world records on the day, with the others going to American discus thrower Jeremy Campbell, who threw 62.18 metres in the F44 category, while in the women's T42/43/44 100m, Marlou Van Rhijn of the Netherlands set a T43 record of 13.58m and Martina Caironi of Italy ran a T42 record of 16.25m.

Ballard already has a Paralympic bronze medal from the Athens 2004 200m, but after missing out on the podium at Beijing 2008 he now looks set to re-establish himself there on home soil after these two effervescent performances.

The world record, he admitted, had come as a complete surprise to him.


"I didn't expect it," Ballard (pictured above) said.

"I just wanted to come out all guns blazing.

"I haven't had a day like this in a long time."

Ballard's British rival Ben Rushgrove remained philosophical after finishing second in the 200m in 25.68, and third in the 100m in 12.45, where Che Mian of China was second in 12.32.

"Graeme ran out of his skin today," Rushgrove said.

"It was an amazing time.

"I am certainly not in condition to run that sort of time right now, but there are another 99 days to go until the Paralympics and from my point of view it was a good race."

Pistorius, who will now be turning his attention to racing in Ostrava at the end of the week before going on to compete in Hengelo and in the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oregon, was satisfied rather than elated after finishing a way off the personal best of 21.80sec he set last year.

"I felt I should have gone a bit quicker, but it was a decent run," he said.

"I'm comfortable with the way I am running.

"There is a lot of pressure on me doubling up at the Paralympics and the Olympics, but I feel more excited than nervous right now.

"To have the Games in London is a blessing."

Pistorius added that his recent concentration on the 400m, for which he now has the Olympic A qualifying standard, meant he was not perfectly toned up to race over 100m and 200m, but he remained confident of his chances in the Paralympic sprints.

"I haven't lost in the 200m, and over 100m I lost my first race in seven years last season, when I was beaten by two thousandths of a second," he said.


But Pistorius was swift to underline that he was not taking anything for granted in his forthcoming Paralympic racing, pointing up the chances of his fellow South African Arnu Fourie and also Britain's Jonathan Peacock (pictured above), who won the T42/43/44 100m race here in 11.32 – improving his personal best by 0.15 – ahead of Blake Leeper of the United States, who clocked 11.42.

Peacock, who trains at the Lee Valley centre alongside the likes of Dwain Chambers, Christian Malcolm and Marlon Devonish, commented: "You hope for these kind of times, but when they happen you can't believe them."

Tatyana McFadden of the United States completed a 400/800m double in the T53/T54 wheelchair racing, recording 55.53 and 1min 55.49sec respectively.

Meanwhile, Britain's Hannah Cockcroft, who set the world record of 18.68 last year in the T34 100m wheelchair race and has since reduced that mark by almost a second, is charging on towards London 2012.

"I want to get sub 17.50 now," she said after winning here in 19.46.

"That would be really cool – and I'm nearly there."


Cockcroft (pictured above) added that the Tartan track at Manchester was too spongy for fast wheelchair racing –

"You can feel your wheels sinking into it," she said, but added: "I've done what I needed to do."

David Weir withdrew from the competition "as a precautionary measure" after suffering the effects of a high speed crash in the men's T54 1500m race in Switzerland last Thursday.

Next on the agenda at the BT Paralympic World Cup are the football and wheelchair basketball competitions, while a boccia international between Britain and the Czech Republic is scheduled for Thursday (May 24).

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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