Paralympic champ eyes main games in Rio 2016

Ethiopian Wondiye Fikre Indelbu was on Tarbei’s shoulder about 150m from the finish line but ended with silver as the Kenyan held him off.

Tarbei said: “I was very careful about him because they are tough guys, so I was very steady. I just go and go and go and conquer the world.”

Asked if he would like to emulate South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, who ran at the Olympic Games, Tarbei said: “Exactly, that is my prayer and I will go back and work for this to make sure I am in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio.”

He dedicated the medal to his fellow Kenyans, his teammates, wife and daughter, adding: ‘I am very grateful. I thank God for this. It was not my achievement alone.

“I have said before it was my ambition to come here and to break our record which has come today, so I am very happy, very thankful.”

Disappointing race

Meanwhile in London, adds Reuters, there was more disappointment at the Paralympics for South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius after he was left trailing in the wake of Britain’s Jonnie Peacock in the men’s 100m final on Thursday.

Pistorius, who courted controversy last week when he complained that his opponent’s blades were too long after losing in the 200m final, could only finish fourth behind Peacock, American Richard Browne and South Africa’s Arnu Fourie.

Peacock stormed out of the blocks and finished five hundredths of a second outside the world record in a time of 10.90.

It was the first time in the Paralympics that anyone had run under 11 seconds.

“I didn’t think it was quite going to be that crazy,” Peacock told Britain’s Channel Four. I was thinking who is going to get the biggest cheer Oscar or me. This time I knew I could push. My drive phase was probably the best it has ever been in a race. It was crazy.

“I should have run quicker than that. I should be going about 3/10ths faster than that. I got up to 60-70 metres and I thought I can win this.”

Pistorius came into the event as defending champion, just as he did in the 200m on Sunday when he prompted controversy by complaining about the length of winner Alan Oliveira’s prosthetic blades.

Moments after that loss, his first in the 200m in nine years, he used a post-race interview to question the legitimacy of his defeat.

Pistorius, dubbed the “Blade Runner”, suggested that his opponent’s prosthetics were too long which had artificially lengthened his stride, giving him an unfair advantage.

Pistorius apologised for the timing of his comments in a statement on Monday, but maintained there was still a fundamental issue about the length of athletes’ prosthetics that needed to be addressed.