World competition getting tougher, blade runner Oscar Pistorious says

From The Press in New Zealand:

The name and face of the IPC World Championships says multiple winners at the event and at the Paralympics will become far rarer.

South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius Jan. 24 said with more and more athletes at world-class level, and more athletes specialising in one or two events, it was becoming tougher to dominate across the board.

His thoughts come as Pistorius, the current 100m, 200m, and 400m Paralympic gold medallist, has entered four events for the first time at a major meeting.

The 24-year-old will also run in the South African 4 x 100m relay team at these games and said the big workload was part of the reason he didn't push to the end in yesterday's 200m heat.

"It is a bit difficult," he said. "Guys are specialising now. I've been more focused on the 400 over the last few years, which has made the 100m become harder for me.

"We've got the 200 today, the final tomorrow, then the 100m for two days and they're going to be really hard."

Pistorius gave little away in yesterday's men's 200m heat, which he won in a canter.

His time of 22.58sec was 0.72sec quicker than the next best, but Pistorius' biggest challenger, American Jerome Singleton, also coasted in winning his heat in 23.38sec.

Like Pistorius, Singleton had won his race by the bend and the last 100m was little more than a training run. But Germany's David Behre, who raced in Pistorius' heat, was second quickest at 23.30sec.