Paralympic Athletics

estebanrey said:
Is there high jump competition for dwarfs?
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I get the feeling you are trying to troll, but in case you're not the high jump has 2 classifications, F42 and F46.

The F jsut means it's a 'Field' event the numbers are explained here...

F42 Athletes with a moderate impairment in one leg or the loss of limbs. They have to adjust for asymmetric balance; in the running pattern for jumping and javelin and across the throwing circle in shot and discus
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F45/F46 Athletes with a moderate impairment in one or both lower arms or the loss of limbs
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So how does the rest of the field allow Richard Whitehead to absolutely blitz them in the final 100m of a 200m final? Was all a bit mental to watch last night...

Oscars up in 90mins ;)

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Attended both Athletics sessions Saturday 1st, atmosphere was good as any other time I'd been in there, and it was packed both sessions.

What Block number is your ticket mp3duck?
 
Pistorius only gets silver in the 200m, although sounds as though there is some controvesy regarding the length of the winners (and other peoples) blades. Seems people are making them longer to increase stride length.
 
Not watched any paralympics till tonight. Oscar being tauted as the best paralympian ever before that 200m race then ends up with a shock loss and only silver, and Oliveira the brazilian taking gold. Very controversial words from Oscar after about how ridiculous it was that Oliveira was able come from the back and overtake him and that it was all down to increasing the length of the blades and shouldn't be allowed.
 
They said they've measured all the blades and they are fine, though on looking at them they did look like they were quite long (longer than if he had his own lower legs). But really you can't probably tell much just by eye.

It does seem strange though for him to say it unless he really thought it was the case, I've never seen him say anything like that before and is usually very gracious.
 
Yea it certainly was out of character for Oscar.

It did look as though they were a bit long with regards to his build, but guess you have to hope the organisation in charge know what they are doing.
 
Was there last night, sat on the end directly above the flame (home straight to the left with finishing line near left, Javelin straight ahead, triplejump pit far right, medals in the distance). Really happy with the seats considering they were only £20, was expecting further back but they were ordered in February or something. Great venue and as with the Olympics organisation seemed pretty much spot on.

I actually think there were more people in the Olympic Park yesterday than when I went to the Olympics 4 weeks ago. Seemed busier although it was slightly later in the day.

Pistorius was really pushing on the 200m heat and dipped for the line to set the WR, seemed a bit inappropriate tonight with his moaning about the Brazillian guy. He may have a valid case but minutes after the finish it didn't come across very well - had he run the same time as he did yesterday, probably he would have won.
 
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HangTime said:
Pistorius was really pushing on the 200m heat and dipped for the line to set the WR, seemed a bit inappropriate tonight with his moaning about the Brazillian guy. He may have a valid case but minutes after the finish it didn't come across very well - had he run the same time as he did yesterday, probably he would have won.
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I think he said that they had tried to get something done about it before the race and hadn't been listened to. Perhaps he felt that the only way he would get anywhere would be by bringing it up with so many people watching.

If you look at it from his view he has had a lot of difficulty being able to run with non disabled athletes at the Olympics because people said he gained an unfair advantage on blades, that to the untrained eye, look the right size for him.

If guys start turning up to race non disabled athletes in blades, that to the untrained eye, look far too long (which is what I thought during the race) just to gain an advantage, then it could end up being detrimental to him and other disabled athletes hoping to run at non disabled events.

Fair enough the guy might be within the rules but to my eyes the legs were too long, and he looked out of proportion on them, so it may be a case that the rules need tightening.
 
Merlin5 said:
Very controversial words from Oscar after about how ridiculous it was that Oliveira was able come from the back and overtake him and that it was all down to increasing the length of the blades and shouldn't be allowed.
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Coming from 8 meters behind to pass a guy running at ~23mph, and doing it in <100m means he was gaining gained a meter on him for every ~13 they ran. That's pretty hard to put down to athletic performance, it looks like (as was feared) the paralympic running is now simply who has the best prosthetics.


Muban said:
They said they've measured all the blades and they are fine, though on looking at them they did look like they were quite long (longer than if he had his own lower legs). But really you can't probably tell much just by eye.
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To be honest, saying they conform to regulations doesn't really mean much when the regulations have never been pushed like this, in F1 the regulations have changed a lot over the years due to technological advances.

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If I decided to take up MMA I would be at a distinct physical disadvantage due to my disability however if I turned up with my prosthetic arm wrapped in barb wire and hooked up to a taser nobody (sane) would have the guts to fight me.

If an athlete with a prosthetic is getting such an advantage from it that he can perform better than he would be able to without a disability that's not really an issue (for the paralympics anyway), as long as they all have the same advantage. We are now in the realm that prosthetics have advanced so much that they offer a distinct advantage over their biological counterparts.

TLDR/Conclusion: I think all the prosthetics for a set event/race should be made by the same prosthetic company and be of the same model/design, and be correctly sized for the athelete like an everyday prosthetic (not just conform to some set sizes but be correct for the man) thus negating and artificial advantage a competitor can have over another.
 
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