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Oscar Pistorius shakes hands with 200m gold medalist Alan Oliveira. John Walton/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Paralympics: No evidence for Pistorius' blade claims, says IPC

The Games’ governing body has found no grounds for the sprinter’s complaint following his 200 metre defeat by Alan Oliveira.

THE INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE (IPC) today says there was no substance to allegations from sprint star Oscar Pistorius about the length of his rivals’ artificial running blades.

“There is no evidence that any athlete competed on different size running blades,” IPC media and communications director Craig Spence told a news conference in London.

“Unless the South Africans can come to us with some evidence that proves otherwise, it’s something that we won’t continue investigating.”

Spence said that South Africa had made a formal complaint raising Pistorius’ claims he was at a disadvantage in the T44 200m final because other runners were “a lot taller” and he could not compete with their stride length.

Pistorius’ defeat to Brazil’s Alan Oliveira was his first defeat in a 200m in nine years and means he will now not retain the three sprint titles he won in Beijing.

The 25-year-old — the most high-profile athlete at the Games after he became the first double-amputee to compete at the Olympics last month — said he had raised the issue with the IPC but it had fallen “on deaf ears”.

He later apologised for the timing of the comments but not the substance.

Spence said they had spoken to national team coaches and found no evidence to back up the claims.

“When we put (the South African) allegation to the coaches there was a look of shock to be honest because running on different size prostheses or swapping them for races is extremely difficult to do for an athlete,” he added.

Swapping blades mid-competition is currently against the rules.

Spence said that Games organisers contacted all national Paralympic committees in April this year and asked them to highlight any concerns about the rules but no issues were raised by South Africa.

The IPC has said that all athletes’ prostheses, which have to be in proportion to the length of their body, were measured on Sunday and no infringements were found.

- © AFP, 2012

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    Mute Vincent Bickerstaffe
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:46 PM

    Dunne is an animal

    19
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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:05 PM

    In fairness lads and lassies, when was the last time you watched Ireland play anyone and was confident in a win?… we have been a shambles of a team since 2002 and it looks increasingly likely another footballing tournament will pass us by and no lessons will be learned.

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:01 PM

    We’ve been alternating between hammerings, mind numbingly boring draws (even when we do the bare minimum to keep ourselves in the game and end up going to pennos), and once a decade or so, a memorable win to lift the heart, and we’ve been doing that since before Big Jack.

    Ireland for me is at the stage now where I’d watch a premiership match ahead of an international fixture. That’s pretty sad, and I’m not proud to say it.

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    Mute Luke Giblin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:03 PM

    Who is on the Ireland bench today lads? Cheers for the feed by the way, watching attentively from my office desk in Canada…

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:06 PM

    subs are Westwood, Foley, Lawrence, Hunt, Cox, Delaney and James McCarthy, Luke.

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    Mute Luke Giblin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:18 PM

    Cheers for that Adrian, keep up the good work

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    Mute Barry Dowling
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:04 PM

    Shay Given or Richard Dunne for president

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    Mute John Manahan
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    Sep 6th 2011, 3:38 PM

    Enjoyable intro on RTE evoking memories of the wonderful 1985 battle featuring Sly and Ivan Drago. Can Ireland slay the giant today ?????

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:13 PM

    I find it funny, do you really miss the Cold War?

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    Mute John Manahan
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:16 PM

    Truly magnificent performance by Dunne. However even such a display shouldn’t cover up our numerous failings. 3 points out of 12 against Slovakia and Russia just isn’t good enough and Trap is, by far, the most negative tactician ever to manage Ireland.

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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:49 PM

    Half time – phew, time to steal a few of the woman’s fake fingernails to replace my own

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    Mute Jonathan Hayes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:35 PM

    Down the left we look weak!!!

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    Mute padraiggrey
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:49 PM

    Bring on hunt

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    Mute Bryan Rooney
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:02 PM

    Tough away fixture for sure but Dunne being man of the match says it all. We never seem capable of threatening goals when really badly needed. Shame for Dunne, Duff & Given in particular missing another tournament. Bye Trap – great clean sheet record but you’ll never draw your way to a finals!

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    Mute Vincent Bickerstaffe
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:52 PM

    Why isnt Doyle actually running and why not bring on Hunt and Laurence

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    Mute Colin Rodgers
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:30 PM

    I know the home team are usually favored, but when the pitch is Astro-Turf, it may as well be a literal handicap for the visitors who aren’t used to playing on such a surface!

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    Mute padraiggrey
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:23 PM

    We are struggling

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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:31 PM

    Just waiting for Russia to score, no confidence in this team sad to say :(

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    Mute jason bourne
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:30 PM

    Pitch looks a terror to play on, Ireland don’t seem confident on it. Too much like astro turf

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    Mute padraiggrey
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:22 PM

    Doyle didnt look happy

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:05 PM

    3:1 if we talk about yellow cards, Ireland wins :)!

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    Mute jason bourne
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:19 PM

    Early signs don’t look good for Ireland. Russia just seem far too fast and Ireland can’t keep up, our defence are all over the place and Russia not letting Ireland have time on the ball

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    Mute Brian Doherty
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:18 PM

    15 mins gone. Ireland under savage pressure. it’s only a matter of time

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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:05 PM

    Another shambles of a performance dressed up as a heroic effort.

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    Mute keyese
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    Sep 6th 2011, 10:45 PM

    oh u are blinded , we can now go on and win the group or at least a playoff if we win our nxt 2 games

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:00 PM

    Россия – вперёд!

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:25 PM

    Attacks of the Irish collapse early (image from the field): http://img.gazeta.ru/files3/21/3552021/MDF65730.JPG

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    Mute jason bourne
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    Sep 6th 2011, 4:57 PM

    We’re screwed, johnny giles only hope is if we get a ‘fluke’ :-(

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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:12 PM

    The only fluke will be Russia not scoring.

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    Mute Dave Ryan
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:00 PM

    How?

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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:09 PM

    I’ll tell you how and it was little to do with “heroism” like Giles and Dunphy will tell you, it was the bad finishing by Russia and another dependable performance by Richard Dunne

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    Mute Seán Ryan
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:53 PM

    Yes we have a chance of making the playoffs…theres six points to play for we are at most going to be 2 behind both slovaks and russia tonight meaning lots of permutations but the most obvious being we win our last 2 and russia beat slovaks …us guaranteed 2nd. But theres loads of other permutations including all of us finishing on the same points.My head hurts im going to ly down now

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:38 PM

    More pictures here: http://www.gazeta.ru/sport/nm/online/football/matches/31001.shtml
    Just scroll down. It is also LIVE coverage (in russian).

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:40 PM
    5
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    Mute padraiggrey
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:39 PM

    Have we a hope of getting to play offs or how does it work

    3
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    Mute Dermot Mc Loughlin
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    Sep 6th 2011, 6:55 PM

    As usual it’s not 100% down to us, we need to win the last two matches and hope Slovakia only draw tonight and lose against Russia, we could automatically qualify as best placed runner up but do we actually deserve to go into a tournament?

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:53 PM

    3 minutes more

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    Mute angryzes
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    Sep 6th 2011, 5:56 PM

    0:0!

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    Mute padraiggrey
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    Sep 6th 2011, 8:06 PM

    If slovaks win tonite are we gone

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    Mute keyese
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    Sep 6th 2011, 10:46 PM

    we ok

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