HERIOT-WATT University student Ryan Oswald may be too young to remember "The Man who shot Liberty Vallance" but in future he may well be remembered as the "Man who beat the Blade Runner."
Oscar Pistorius, the South African triple Paralympic gold medallist and double amputee, was trumpeted as the star attraction of the 2009 Scottish National Athletics Championships held at Pitreavie Stadium at the weekend.
But it was the 20-y
ear-old local lad, competing on his home track and for his local Pitreavie club, who produced the performance of the day to capture his first senior national title in the 200 metres, with Glasgow's Craig Fleming second and the controversial South African, who had both legs amputated before his first birthday and runs with the aid of his famous Cheetah blade prosthetics, third.
"I wasn't the fastest going into the race and to be honest I was expecting Oscar to beat me," said Oswald, who is coached by Linsey Macdonald's dad John and has just finished his second year in computer science.
Oswald, whose time of 21.93 was set into a strong 3.0 mps wind, had no problems with the presence of Pistorius, who had to go to law to overturn an IAAF ruling that his blades gave him an unfair advantage. He said: "I was OK with it – if he can run he can run."
But the huge queue of autograph hunters at the end said it all – they were all waiting for Blade Runner. The charming Pistorius – "my bronze medal will certainly rate high among my souvenirs" – pepped up a worryingly low-key meeting, clearly not helped by the loss of four stars to the European Team Championships.
Though the three Australian visitors all won, they did little to set the pulse racing, with Nick Bromley content to pip local favourite Graham Oudney in a slow 800m (1:53.33), former World Cross country champion Benita Johnson confessing that her 5000m win in a sluggish 16:25.26 was her first tracking outing for over a year and Collis Birmingham collecting his third 1500m title with a late surge in 3:42.56, with Chris O'Hare (EAC) fifth in 3:48.99.
Francis Smith (Pitreavie) was the only double winner, giving coach John MacDonald two more £25 win bonuses in the 400m hurdles in 52.25 (his fourth in a row) and the 110m hurdles (his third) in 14.87; while in the absence of Eilidh Child, who was fourth in 55.48 for GB in Portugal, Avril Jackson (EAC) took her second 400m hurdles title in 60.91. On the Saturday, clubmate Jayne Nisbet had shown a welcome return to form in the high jump and came close to making her qualifying mark for Delhi 2010.
Having struggled to make 1.70m in any outdoor meetings this season, she cleared 1.80m to take the title for the fourth year in a row in far from ideal conditions and had a close try at the Games height of 1.83m. "I'm sure I'll get it next time out," said Nisbet.
Against the odds, another clubmate Louise Dickson retained her 100m title in 12.37 secs into a headwind despite the fact her coach Bill Walker did not want her to compete because of a hamstring injury.
"I'm glad she ignored me," he said.
Oswald's clubmate Stacey Downie, victim of a chest infection last month and pushed into third in the 100m, did well to retain her 200m title yesterday.
Dunfermline's Nick Smith had won the men's 100m for the fifth time and third year in a row in 10.72 secs into a stiff headwind.
A former England internationalist, Henrietta Paxton (Birchfield), broke the only National record of the meeting, clearing 4.06 metres in the pole vault.
The full article contains 640 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
