International Capsules: ‘Blade Runner' Pistorius qualifies for worlds
Double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius qualified for the athletics world championships, running his best-ever time in the 400 meters Tuesday in his last race before the cutoff date.
The South African - nicknamed "Blade Runner" - also moved a step closer to fulfilling his dream of competing in the 2012 Olympics after clocking a personal best of 45.07 seconds at a small meet in the northern Italian town of Lignano.
The 24-year-old Pistorius needed to run 45.25 - having never run faster than 45.61 - to qualify for the worlds for the first time. The championships begin Aug. 27 in Daegu, South Korea.
"So tonight was the last night to qualify," Pistorius tweeted after the race. "Needed a 45.25 A standard, ran a 45.07sec! Thank you to my team."
He wrote in another post: "Feels kind of surreal.. To have an A-qualification time in the bag for next yrs Olympic Games! Thank you all the your support!"
The time put him on track to achieve his ambition of competing at the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year, four years after he had to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes on his carbon-fiber blades.
"He’s over the moon," Pistorius’ agent Peet van Zyl told The Associated Press. "I spoke to him before the race and told him ‘Listen, this is what it’s all about. This is what we fought the court cases for.’
"He said ‘All I can do is my best’ and I said ‘Your best is good enough.’ I spoke to him literally as he was coming off the track and all he said was ‘I did it."‘
Having achieved the "A" qualifying time, South Africa now has to pick Pistorius for its team for the worlds and could also take him to the London Olympics, which he is also now eligible to compete in.
Pistorius gained international fame when he tried to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He had to battle a ban by world athletics governing body the IAAF from competing in able-bodied races after his blades were deemed an unfair advantage.
He went to the Court of Arbitration and was cleared to run, but the legal process took a toll on his training and he didn’t come close to the qualifying time for Beijing.
Pistorius is the world record-holder in the 100, 200 and 400 for disabled athletes, and a multiple gold medal winner at the Paralympics, but has long wanted to run against able-bodied athletes at the Olympics.
Having missed out on the qualifying time at meets in the Czech Republic, France and Diamond League events in New York and Eugene, Ore., this season, Pistorius struggled to a time of 46.65 seconds in Padua, Italy, over the weekend. He looked way off the world championship qualifying pace.
It left him with the Lignano race to run his fastest time. His final race in Budapest, Hungary, on July 31 is likely too close to the Aug. 1 cutoff for teams to be finalized for the world championships.
In Lignano, Pistorius blew away the field to win by more than a second ahead of Jamaicans Lanceford Spence and Michael Mason.
"They have to pick him now (for the worlds)," Van Zyl said. "I knew this was coming."
Pistorius only took up running as a teenager to help him recover from a rugby injury. He started training with a coach in 2004 and set his first Paralympics world record three weeks later. Eight months later, he won his first Paralympics gold medal in Athens.
Originally from the South African capital Pretoria, Pistorius had his legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old because he was born without shin bones.
"My mother was someone who never pitied the fact that I had prosthetic legs," he told the AP in an interview in April. "As far as she was concerned, the only difference between me and my brother was that my brother put his shoes on in the morning and I put my legs on - and that’s it."
Tamgho out of track worlds with broken ankle
PARIS (AP) — Triple jumper Teddy Tamgho will miss the track world championships with a broken ankle.
The 22-year-old Frenchman was injured at the European under-23 championships in Ostrava on Saturday, and he confirmed on his Facebook page Tuesday that he would be unable to compete again this season.
Tamgho set a new world indoor record with a jump of 17.92 meters when he won the European indoor title in March.
He was expected to be the main challenger to defending champion Phillips Idowu at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, which begin Aug. 27.
Tamgho beat Idowu with a world-leading jump of 17.91 in Lausanne in June.
Swimming
Gianniotis wins 10K open water race at worlds
JINSHAN CITY, China (AP) — Spyros Gianniotis of Greece overtook defending champion Thomas Lurz of Germany in the last lap to win the 10-kilometer open water swim at the world championships on Wednesday and qualify for the London Olympics.
Gianniotis broke free of a pack of swimmers after the final turn and passed Lurz and Britain's Daniel Lee Fogg, who had led for most of the race.
The Greek swimmer finished in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 24.7 seconds. Lurz was 2.5 seconds behind in second place, with Russia's Sergey Bolshakov taking bronze in 1:54:31.8.
The water temperature for the race at Jinshan City Beach outside Shanghai was 84.5 degrees, just below the newly recommended limit of 88 for open water competition.
Gianniotis, who won a silver in the 5-kilometer open water race at the 2009 world championships in Rome, said the water temperature bothered him for the first half of the race, but he started to feel stronger toward the end.
"The race for me was like hell to be honest," he said. "I was not feeling so good at five or six (kilometers). I picked up my pace, and at about 9K I felt really good and I said, 'I make my move now.'
"I was hoping I had a bit more than Thomas."
Lurz, who won the 10-kilometer race in Rome, had battled Fogg and German Andreas Waschburger for the lead for much of the race, but was unable to counter Gianniotis' late sprint.
The top 10 finishers in the race qualified automatically for the 2012 London Olympics. Alex Meyer of the United States finished fourth, followed by Ky Hurst of Australia in fifth.
The other Olympic qualifiers were: Francisco Jose Hervas Jodar of Spain, Brian Ryckeman of Belgium, Julien Sauvage of France, two-time 10-kilometer world champion Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia, and Waschburger.
Missing out on a spot for his home Olympics was Fogg, who had opened a two-body-length lead on the field midway through the race but dropped to 15th place at the finish.
"I just wanted to give it my best and give myself the best opportunity at the end to finish in the top 10 and I think I did that for the first three and a half laps," Fogg said. "I felt comfortable at the front leading, and I obviously knew there were going to be a lot of good swimmers coming up behind me to challenge. I thought I'd be a bit stronger at the end."
Meyer said his thoughts during the race were on his close friend and former teammate, Fran Crippen, who died near the end of a 10-kilometer World Cup event in warm waters in the United Arab Emirates in October. After Meyer noticed that Crippen didn't cross the finish line at the end of that race last year, he led the search for him.
Meyer now carries a photograph of himself holding a picture of Crippen to every race.
"My main goal coming here was to make the Olympic team," he said. "It's kind of a bittersweet moment because Fran's not here. That was a dream we shared to go to the Olympics together and it's not going to happen now."
Safety has been a major concern in open water swimming since Crippen's death. Organizers in Shanghai are using a high-tech sonar system to quickly locate any swimmer that drops below the surface.
Hurst, who won a silver medal at the 1998 world championships in the 5K event in is a veteran surf lifesaving competitor in Australia, moved up from around 20th place at the halfway point to earn an Olympic spot.
Keri-Anne Payne won the women's 10-kilometer open water race on Tuesday to become the first British athlete to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.
-- Justin Bergman
China wins sixth diving gold at worlds
SHANGHAI (AP) — Already dominating the diving pool at the world championships, China took its performance to an even higher level in men's 3-meter synchro. Qin Kai and Luo Yutong earned 10 perfect marks on their way to winning the host country's sixth gold medal.
The Chinese divers pulled away midway through the final Tuesday and finished with 463.98 points, giving China its second gold of the day and eighth medal overall in the outdoor pool.
Earlier, Shi Tingmao and Wang Han finished 1-2 in the women's 1-meter to complete a springboard sweep for the Chinese.
In the men's final, Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia took the silver with 451.89, rallying from fourth on their last dive.
Mexico's Yahel Castillo and Julian Sanchez earned the bronze at 437.61.
Americans Kristian Ipsen and Troy Dumais settled for fourth at 429.06, the highest finish for the United States so far. They were in second place going into the last dive, but Dumais missed on a reverse 2½ somersault with 1½ twists to drop out of medal contention. The duo won the silver two years ago in Rome.
"I missed my last dive and that's what happens," Dumais said. "I'm sorry I had to bring my teammate down with me, but that's just the way it is — he did a great dive and I missed mine."
The Chinese led all the way, increasing their lead by double digits starting with the third round. Qin, who won the gold in Rome with a different partner, and Luo did the same dive as the Americans in the final round, and the Chinese received one 10 for execution.
Their first two dives earned four 10s each for synchronization, and their third dive received one 10, causing fans to pound their red-and-white Thunderstix.
"Our rivals gave us a lot of pressure, especially for the final dive," Qin said. "They made a few difficult dives. However, we kept our confidence and solved the problem."
The Chinese are known for their high degree of difficulty, but it was the Russian duo who performed the toughest dive of the competition.
Zakharov and Kuznetsov went for it on their final dive, a forward with 4½ twists that earned high enough marks to push them onto the medals podium.
"I don't think we can't compete with them," Zakharov said of the Chinese, "but here in Shanghai, it's easy for the Chinese divers to win the title because they have their home swimming pool."
The women's contest was close, with Shi totaling 318.65 points and Wang just 8.45 points behind for silver with 310.20. Wang improved on her third-place showing two years ago in Rome.
"I was nervous today, so it's hard to win. But I feel pretty good at last," said Shi, a 19-year-old who is not on China's national team. "My opponents are strong so I stayed in a low key before the contest. The biggest achievement is that I am now a world champion, not just a national champion anymore."
Italy's Tania Cagnotto earned the bronze with 295.45 after being 12th in the preliminaries.
"This is a great medal, maybe my best one," she said. "This time I'm congratulating myself."
The Italian diver broke her wrist last month in a scooter accident and had surgery, leaving her just two weeks to train for worlds.
"I even didn't know whether I can compete," Cagnotto said. "The Chinese divers are consistent and they are the best. Although I trained very hard, it's still too difficult to beat them."
Wang led after the first round before Shi took over the top spot through the last four rounds.
Wang received her lowest marks on her second dive.
"It's a pity that I failed to win the title. I made mistakes in my second dive, which I usually did well," she said. "I should have had more practice."
Their teammates, Li Shixin and He Min, won gold and silver in the men's 1-meter event Monday.
Shi's victory gave China its fifth gold in diving with five events remaining. The Chinese have won seven medals overall at the outdoor pool.
Shi led Wang by just 4.55 points after four dives. Both women performed reverse 1 1-2 somersaults with 1 1-2 twists on their last dives — with equal 2.6 degree of difficulty — but Shi received marks of 9.0 and higher, while Wang's marks ranged from 8.0 to 9.0.
"The Chinese are really consistent, and they are beautiful divers," said American Abby Johnston, who was sixth.
Anastasia Pozdniakova of Russia was in position to claim the silver, but she badly missed on her fourth dive and dropped from second to last in the 12-woman field.
Pozdniakova came out of her dive and landed on her belly, creating a huge splash. She received marks ranging from 1.5 to 3.0, and with only one dive remaining had no chance to move up.
The other U.S. diver, Kelci Bryant, finished ninth.
-- Beth Harris
Russia wins team technical gold at world titles
SHANGHAI (AP) — Russia dominated synchronized swimming at the world aquatic championships, winning the team technical competition Tuesday for its third gold medal in as many nights.
Russia scored 98.3 points to beat China, which finished with 96.8. Spain won the bronze with 96.0 points.
On Monday, Russian Natalia Ishchenko won her second gold medal, teaming with Svetlana Romashina to win the duet technical final a night after taking the solo gold.
The competition has four more gold medals to be awarded, all in the freestyle events — solo, combination, duet and team.
Olympics
UK expects 2012 Olympics to be under budget
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Olympics minister says the 2012 London Games will be delivered under budget.
Hugh Robertson says the anticipated final cost of the Olympic construction project has decreased by $25 million to $11 million since May.
Discussing the overall $15 billion cost of the games, Robertson told reporters on Tuesday that he is confident that the Olympics will come in under budget."
As London prepares to mark the one-year countdown next week, the Olympic Delivery Authority says 88 percent of the construction is complete.
Robertson says the ODA has driven down costs, and "can celebrate one year to go with confidence and a real sense of excitement and expectation."
French show jumping great d’Oriola dies at 91
PARIS (AP) — Pierre Jonqueres d’Oriola, who won show jumping gold medals for France at the 1952 and 1964 Olympics, has died. He was 91.
The French Equestrian Federation said d’Oriola died Tuesday at his home in Corneilla-del-Vercol in the eastern Pyrenees of southern France.
At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, he took the individual gold medal riding Ali Baba. Twelve years later at the Tokyo Games, he won the gold medal again on Lutteur B.
D’Oriola’s French team also took the silver medal in Tokyo and again in 1968 in Mexico. He won gold at the 1966 world championships in Argentina.
Skiing
Scheiber back on skis 6 months after crash
INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) — Austrian skier Mario Scheiber has resumed training, nearly six months after breaking his shoulder blade and nose in a spectacular crash during World Cup downhill training in Chamonix, France.
The Austrian ski federation says Scheiber completed a practice session at the Hintertuxer glacier on Tuesday without complications.
The 28-year-old Scheiber says he is "doing great ... though the first day on snow is somewhat unusual of course."
Scheiber was one of four Austrian skiers who missed February’s world championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, because of injuries following a crash.
