Oscar Pistorius Up For Laureus Award

05 January 2012

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, known as the "Blade Runner", has been nominated for the 2012 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award and the Laureus Disability Award.

Pistorius has also been called "the fastest man on no legs". That is because he was born without fibulas, the bones found between the knee and the ankle. To compete in athletics, he runs with the aid of Cheetah Flex-Foot carbon fibre transtibial artificial limbs.

 

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Oscar Pistorius: the first amputee to win a medal at an able-bodied World Championship (Photo: Laureus)

In August 2011, he made history as a member of the South African 4x400 metres relay team at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, by winning a silver medal, making him the first amputee to win a medal at an able-bodied World Championship.

Groundbreaking

That ground-breaking feat makes Pistorius one of the favourites for the Breakthrough Award, despite a field of strong challengers for the honour.

Besides medalling in Daegu, he also qualified for the semi-finals of the individual 400 metres. He ran 45.39 seconds in the heats before slipping to a time of 46.19 in the semi-finals.

Previously, two South Africans, swimmer Natalie du Toit in 2010 and wheelchair racer Ernst van Dyk in 2006, have claimed the Disability Award, and Pistorius would, no doubt, love to follow in their footsteps.

His goals for 2012 include competing at the London Olympic Games and the Paralympics.

Breakthrough nominees

The other athletes nominated for the Breakthrough award include Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake, who won World Championship gold in the 100 metres in Daegu and ran the second fastest 200 metres ever in Brussels, clocking 19.26 seconds.

Britain's Mo Farah earned his nomination by winning the 5 000 metres gold in Daegu and finishing second in the 10 000 metres.

Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy captured the golf world's imagination and captured the US Open at just 22 years of age.

In tennis, 21-year-old Czech star Petra Kvitova won the Wimbledon women's singles title, while China's Li Na became the first Asian Grand Slam winner when she triumphed in the French Open.

 

Disability nominees

Pistorius' opposition for the Disability Award include Dutch wheelchair tennis star Esther Vergeer, already a two-time Laureus Awards winner and unbeaten in singles in more than eight years.

British wheelchair racer David Weir, a five-time winner of the London Marathon, is also in line for honours.

Russian cross-country skier Irek Zaripov, a winner of five medals at the 2010 Winter Paralympics, four of them gold, is a nominee too.

Two Brazilians have been nominated: swimmer Daniel Dias, who won the Disability Award in 2009 and won seven gold medals at the 2010 IPC Paralympic Swimming World Championships, and visually impaired sprint star Terezinha Guilhermina.

 

Awards ceremony

The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during 2011, are the premier honours on the international sporting calendar. The winners will be unveiled during a globally televised Awards Ceremony in London on Monday, 6 February.

Proceeds from the Awards will directly benefit and underpin the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which supports 89 community sports projects around the world that have helped to improve the lives of more than one-and-a-half million young people since its inception.

 

Source: Brad Morgan South Africa.Info