by Sportswriter Gao Peng
BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Paralympics
were tainted Tuesday by a doping scandal, while South African sensation sprinter
Oscar Pistorius started his quest for three gold medals on a winning note.
Pistorius, nicknamed "Blade Runner" after his
J-shaped carbon fiber prostheses, overcame a slow start to win the men's TT 44
100m sprint in 11.17 seconds, about a quarter of a second slower than his world
record of 10.91 set last year.
America's Jerome Singleton was edged into second
place, just 0.03 seconds behind Pistorius. Defending champion Marlon Shirley,
also an American, fell onto the ground halfway in the race and came the last.
"The first 30 meters was terrible, and I thought that
with 70m to go I made the best of it to get out on top, and that went as
planned," said Pistorius, who will also run 200m and 400m.
Pistorius was born without his fibula, the smaller of
the two bones in the lower legs, and when he was 11 months old both limbs were
amputated below the knee.
The International Association of Athletics
Federations ruled Pistorius's carbon fiber blades gave him an advantage and
barred him from competing against able-bodied athletes. The Court of Arbitration
for Sport overturned the ban in May but he eventually failed to reach the
Olympic qualifying standard.
Pakistani powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt became the
first athlete caught for doping offense and had been kicked out of the Games
after testing positive for methandienone metabolites, a steroid, the
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said in a statement.
The 37-year-old, who had been due to show up in the
men's 100kg competition next week, also received a two-year ban.
According to the IPC, the urine sample was taken on
September 4 in Beijing, two days before the opening ceremony.
In the Athens 2004 Paralympics, 680 doping tests were
conducted and 10 violations emerged. The IPC has said it plans to carry out
1,100 tests, both in and out of competition, in Beijing.
Meanwhile, a wheelchair race will be re-contested,
although the medals had already been handed out, the IPC said.
In Monday evening's T-54 5,000m race, several
competitors were embroiled in a wheelchair crash and only five athletes finished
the race, which was won by Canada's Diane Roy. Britain's Shelly Woods and
American Amanda Mcgrory was second and third respectively.
A jury of appeal decided that the race should be
re-run on Friday in light of "the seriousness of the crash", said IPC athletics
chairman Chris Cohen.
"There were six athletes who were taken out of the
race because of the crash," he said. "In the interests of fairness to all
concerned, it was decided that race should be held again."
A total of 61 gold medal events were scheduled for
Tuesday, the most for any single day during the 11-day event. Host China
collected eight golds, six in track and field and one in judo and powerlifting
each, to lift its gold medal total to 16. Thanks to a strong showing by its
cyclists, Britain followed closely in the medals table with 14 golds. The United
States was third with 10.
Chinese star swimmer Wang Xiaofu's ambition of
copying Michael Phelps' success were crushed when the 21-year-old amputee
finished second in the men's S8 100m breaststroke. He now has three medals, in
different colors.
With six more events to take part, Wang is unable to
match his American idol who won an unprecedented eight gold medals at last
month's Olympics.
British cyclists continued their gold rush with five
more victories at the Laoshan Velodrome, taking their gold medal haul to nine,
more than half of the already decided.
More than 4,000 athletes from 147 countries and
regions compete in 20 sports in five different categories of disability, with a
total of 472 gold medals at stake.
The Paralympics will end on Sept.
17.
