Double amputee Oscar Pistorius expressed surprise Wednesday that he had been left out of the South African 4x400 meters relay team which won silver at the World Championships in Daegu last week after he had run in the first round. Pistorius, the first amputee to compete at the biennial world championships, ran the first leg when the South African quartet set a national record in the semifinals. He was replaced by 400 meters hurdles bronze medallist LJ van Zyl in the final. “After the final I looked at it in two respects,” Pistorius told Britain's former world high hurdles champion Colin Jackson during a question-and-answer session at a London hotel. “I was surprised I didn't get to run, I really felt I deserved to according to the times I ran in the semi-final. But I'm really happy for my team, they're phenomenal guys.” Pistorius, who finished last in his 400 meters semifinal in Daegu, was cleared to run at the championships after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over-ruled an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ban. He now plans to compete in next year's London Olympics as well as running in the 100, 200, 400 and 4x100 relay in the Paralympics. The 24-year-old South African has polarized opinion with some critics saying his prosthetic blades give him an unfair advantage. He had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old after he was born without a fibula in either limb. “As far as I'm concerned the ones (blades) that I am using have been tested and proved to have no advantage,” he said. “Some of the top scientists in the world have tested the prosthetic legs. I'm used to it now, for every five percent of people that criticise me 95 percent of people support me.”
