Pistorius seen on blades again as agent says return imminent
Source: Agencies |
April 5, 2013, Friday
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OSCAR Pistorius has been running on his blades again and his return to regular training is imminent, his agent said.
It is the first time it has been confirmed that the athlete has run since he was charged with the Valentine's Day shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
A grainy cellphone photo of what appears to be Pistorius on the track at the University of Pretoria was published yesterday on the front page of the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper in South Africa.
The photo, taken by a high school student from a bus passing by the track, shows the double amputee at some distance wearing his unmistakable blades and dark lycra running clothes and walking on a track with his hands on his hips.
In response to the newspaper's claim that Pistorius had begun training as much as two weeks ago, his family denied that he was on "any official training program" and had only been out running "on a number of isolated occasions."
"Each time has been very difficult and he has struggled immensely with the decision to even leave the house," Arnold Pistorius, Oscar's uncle, said in the statement.
But the family had encouraged Pistorius to get back on the track, his uncle said.
The photo was taken on March 24 by teenager Lisa Smith, her field hockey coach said, when their team was visiting the University of Pretoria, where Pistorius' regular practice facility is.
It was the first time Pistorius had pulled on his running blades since he shot Steenkamp dead in his home in the early hours of February 14, his agent, Peet van Zyl, said.
Pistorius was only "having a jog around the track," the agent reiterated, as the newspaper claimed sources had told it the Olympic 400-meter runner and Paralympic champion had begun full training at the university on March 21.
Van Zyl disputed that and said neither he nor Ampie Louw, Pistorius' coach and the man who controls his training sessions, were present at the track on the day the photo was taken.
Field hockey coach and school sports director Charmaine Koekemoer said she was driving the bus past the track around 10:15am on the Sunday morning when members of her Hoerskool Voortrekker girls hockey team started shouting "There's Oscar! There's Oscar!" from the back.
Student Smith then took the photo on her BlackBerry, Koekemoer said. It shows Pistorius in the distance with the bars of a metal fence in the foreground. He is the only person in the shot and is walking in front of empty, gray spectator stands.
"The kids were very excited," Koekemoer said.
"That was the excitement, seeing a world icon in real life. It was nothing to do with his case.
"We didn't see him running around the track. He was just walking to the 100-meter end line down the final stretch. It looked like he was going to take his blades off."
It is the first time it has been confirmed that the athlete has run since he was charged with the Valentine's Day shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
A grainy cellphone photo of what appears to be Pistorius on the track at the University of Pretoria was published yesterday on the front page of the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper in South Africa.
The photo, taken by a high school student from a bus passing by the track, shows the double amputee at some distance wearing his unmistakable blades and dark lycra running clothes and walking on a track with his hands on his hips.
In response to the newspaper's claim that Pistorius had begun training as much as two weeks ago, his family denied that he was on "any official training program" and had only been out running "on a number of isolated occasions."
"Each time has been very difficult and he has struggled immensely with the decision to even leave the house," Arnold Pistorius, Oscar's uncle, said in the statement.
But the family had encouraged Pistorius to get back on the track, his uncle said.
The photo was taken on March 24 by teenager Lisa Smith, her field hockey coach said, when their team was visiting the University of Pretoria, where Pistorius' regular practice facility is.
It was the first time Pistorius had pulled on his running blades since he shot Steenkamp dead in his home in the early hours of February 14, his agent, Peet van Zyl, said.
Pistorius was only "having a jog around the track," the agent reiterated, as the newspaper claimed sources had told it the Olympic 400-meter runner and Paralympic champion had begun full training at the university on March 21.
Van Zyl disputed that and said neither he nor Ampie Louw, Pistorius' coach and the man who controls his training sessions, were present at the track on the day the photo was taken.
Field hockey coach and school sports director Charmaine Koekemoer said she was driving the bus past the track around 10:15am on the Sunday morning when members of her Hoerskool Voortrekker girls hockey team started shouting "There's Oscar! There's Oscar!" from the back.
Student Smith then took the photo on her BlackBerry, Koekemoer said. It shows Pistorius in the distance with the bars of a metal fence in the foreground. He is the only person in the shot and is walking in front of empty, gray spectator stands.
"The kids were very excited," Koekemoer said.
"That was the excitement, seeing a world icon in real life. It was nothing to do with his case.
"We didn't see him running around the track. He was just walking to the 100-meter end line down the final stretch. It looked like he was going to take his blades off."
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