Olympic blade runner go-ahead

An athlete with no legs dubbed Blade Runner has won the right to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

Oscar Pistorius, who runs on two Cheetah blades, had been banned from the event by athletics governing body the IAAF. It ruled the prosthetic limbs gave him an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes.

But today the 21-year-old South African won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne and said he wants to run in the 400 metres.

The blades allow him to cover more ground per stride, reduce the build-up of lactic acid in muscles and expend less energy. But the court decided they simply made up for his disability compared with other athletes.

Mr Pistorius finished second over the 400 metres at the South African national championships last year. He is less than a second short of the Olympic qualifying time with a personal best at the distance of 46.34 seconds, which would have won gold at every Olympic Games before 1932.

Now he needs to clock the "A" standard of 45.55 seconds or the "B" qualifier of 45.95 seconds, if no other South African attains the higher one. Welcoming the decision Pistorius, who had his legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, said: "I am thrilled with the panel's findings and hope that its silences many of the crazy theories.

"My focus throughout the appeal has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete and compete fairly with able-bodied athletes." The breakthrough for the disabled athlete came as drugs cheat Dwain Chambers launched his own appeal to take part in the Games.

The sprinter was banned for life by the British Olympic Association after he tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug tetrahydrogestrinome in August 2003.