Pistorius left disappointed as team crash out

Oscar Pistorius was denied the chance to even run, never mind add to his World Championship relay medal, after South African team-mate Ofentse Mogawane crashed out during the second heat of the 4x400m today.

Pistorius, who won silver in Daegu last year despite not being selected for the final, was waiting to collect the baton from Mogawane on the third leg at the Olympic Stadium.

But the double amputee was left waiting in vain after Mogawane collided with Kenya’s Vincent Kiilu around the top bend and was sent sprawling to the track, a shoulder injury leaving him unable to continue.

The Kenyan team were disqualified and South Africa have lodged an appeal.

“I was standing there and I took my eyes off the screen and kept them on the straight and obviously just as I took them off it must have happened,” said Pistorius, who reached the semi-finals of the individual event on his historic Olympic debut.

“He’s not the biggest of guys and initially I thought he was maybe pushed in behind someone and then I just carried on looking and he didn’t come out. It’s really tough at the moment. I feel sorry for my team-mates, they’re a phenomenal group of guys.

“It’s just really disappointing for us because we came off a second place at the world champs last year and a national record and we’ve got more or less the same team.”

As for his own experience of the Games, Pistorius added: “It’s been absolutely phenomenal, just stepping out there again today on the track in front of a crowd like this has been awesome. It just would have been nice to have another run.

“This whole experience has just been mindblowing for me, I can’t describe it in so many words, I’ll be speaking for days.”

The Bahamas and the United States were the fastest qualifiers after being given the same time of 2:58.87 in heat two, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago and Great Britain who were also given the same time of 3:00.38 in heat one.

Elsewhere, it took almost two hours to determine the 12 qualifiers for Saturday’s final of the women’s high jump.

With 14 athletes still in contention when the bar was raised to the automatic qualification standard of 1.96m, lively discussions started between athletes and officials to determine if the additional height would be required to make the cut.

After careful study of the standings, all seven athletes without a failure decided to pass as they were guaranteed to be in the top 12, with three athletes with only one failure doing the same.

That left four women battling for two places and former world junior champion Svetlana Radzivil of Uzbekistan cleared 1.96m at the first attempt to book her place.

Germany’s Ariane Friedrich and Greece’s Adonia Steryiou bowed out after three failures at 1.96m, leaving Russia’s Irina Gordeeva to advance courtesy of having just one failure against Friedrich’s two at 1.93m.