Oscar Pistorius ran this weekend in Sheffield, where he was the last finisher in 47.65 seconds. Unfortunately, he was disqualified for running out of his lane.

The fun does not stop there, however. The IAAF has had some hidden cameras watching Oscar’s races, and are grasping at straws to find something that they can disqualify him for and save face. Their videos have shown that most of the common rationalizations simply aren’t true. Oscar Pistorius is not overly tall, and his stride length is average for somebody his size.

Their latest claim, however, is that he does not have as much air resistance than a normal runner. I am not really sure how they can say that from watching a video of a race, however. I think that if they want to make claims like this, they should get him into a wind tunnel along with a few able bodied and paralympic competitors and make some actual measurements. How much air resistance does an able bodied person’s lower legs have to push against? How much less is he pushing against?

I do not think that Oscar is going to be able to run a qualifying time in the 400 meters before the deadline for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I think that the IAAF should start working with him a little closer and should determine what sort of advantages and disadvantages he actually has.

(Sources: ESPN – ESPN)