Peacock equals Paralympic record to ease through to final showdown with Pistorius

On Wednesday night it was not about the blades; it was about sprinting — quick, competitive sprinting. And it was a Briton, Jonnie Peacock, who was the quickest of them all.
The men’s T44 100 metres final on Thursday night promises to be one of the sporting spectacles of the summer, let alone of this Paralympic Games.
The big six players in this fascinating soap opera will all be there at 9.24pm in the Olympic Stadium: Peacock, Oscar Pistorius, Jerome Singleton, Alan Oliveira, Blake Leeper and Arnu Fourie. Some of the names may sound unfamiliar but stick with it. In terms of fierce rivalry and pushing the limits of their sport these athletes could just as well be Bolt, Blake, Powell, Gatlin and Gay.

Streets ahead: Britain's Jonnie Peacock powers home to win his 100m T44 heat

The three magnificent heats of the men’s T44 100m were just what Paralympic athletics needed. We have been dazzled by the stunning exploits of Great Britain’s David Weir, who has already won two gold medals over 1500m and 5,000m, but a wide, genuinely world-class field bidding to become the  fastest amputee in the world? Now that really is something to make your mouth water.
Pistorius’ ill-timed complaints about the length of his opponents’ prosthetic legs had taken the focus away from the sport and put the spotlight back on technology. By 7.30pm on Wednesday, however, amputee sprinting was back to being about sport.
At the middle of it all was a 19-year-old from Cambridge. Peacock is the world record holder, but this was his Paralympic Games debut. While the  others had already run two races on this hard, quick track in front of capacity crowds, Peacock entered the cauldron of noise for the first time.
Would he be a specialist, someone interested only in 100m gold? Or would he be a novice, an athlete unfamiliar with the unique pressures and attention of a Paralympic Games — never mind one on home soil.
The answer was convincing. Peacock ran 11.08sec, the fastest time by a tenth of a second and a Paralympic record. He’s a specialist, all right. He said: ‘I expected a few of the guys to push me more. I didn’t think I’d win by so much.

‘The end of the race wasn’t as controlled as I’d like it to be — I need to keep my core stronger — and my start could have been better. But that race into that kind of wind could have been worth 10.90 or 10.95, which would have been my fastest ever first round, and I’ll come back stronger tomorrow.’
Peacock was in the first and toughest heat, facing Singleton, the silver medallist in Beijing, and Oliveira, the first person to beat Pistorius in a Paralympic 200m race. The Briton got a competent start in lane seven but was ahead by the time he finished the driving phase of his race, finishing comfortably clear of Singleton in second. Oliveira was third.
‘I know that Jonnie was ready,’ said Singleton, the world champion and a former NASA scholar who has a degree in mathematics and applied physics. ‘He’s in front of his home crowd so he wants to put on a show.’
He certainly did that, justifying the Team Jonnie T-shirts in the crowd. Peacock’s right leg was amputated below the knee when he was five after he contracted meningitis. His style is choppier, more staccato, than the languid Singleton, who is also a single amputee. But the way Peacock’s arms pump, perfectly synchronised, reflect a technique far beyond the three years he has been sprinting.
In that sense, Peacock is more like Pistorius, a double amputee but an athlete who has worked hard to maximise every possible advantage from his technique.

Charge: South Africa's Oscar Pistorius also made it through to Thursday's final

There was one significant difference between the king and the challenger, however: every vein in the South African’s neck bulged as he sprinted through the line. Pistorius, the veteran of three Paralympic Games, was nervous. 
This was a big night for the Blade Runner. Pistorius had said sorry but now it was time to stop talking about the blades and get back on them. He got a warm reception from the crowd when he was introduced, but must have wondered if there would be a few pantomime boos. The South African suffered a double whammy in that 200m final on Sunday night, after all. He lost not only his title but a little of the Everyman aura that has made him the Games’ poster boy.
Pistorius ran 11.18sec on Wednesday night to win his heat and qualify second fastest behind Peacock. It was not emphatic, but it was convincing; more than just getting back on the blades. Leeper was second in 11.46sec, coming through, once again, frighteningly quickly in the last 40m. Fourie won the final heat in 11.29sec, with American Richard Browne four hundredths of a second behind him.
The scene is set for a thrilling 100m final which promises not to be about artificial legs but pure speed.