LUCERNE, Switzerland - Oscar Pistorius set up one of his greatest victories in Switzerland. Now he's hoping another triumph here will take him all the way to Beijing.
The double amputee sprinter was in Lucerne Friday to see organizers of a July 16 athletics meet where he will have his last chance to run an Olympic qualifying time. Pistorius, who is also running in Rome on July 11, must set a personal best in the 400 metres to make the South Africa relay team for Beijing.
"I really have to pull up my socks if I am going to go to the Olympics," Pistorius said. "It is the last chance for me to qualify, and if I don't it will be my last able-bodied meet of the year."
The 21-year-old runner previously visited Switzerland in April for a two-day hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
The court overturned a decision by the IAAF governing body that Pistorius' carbon fibre prosthetic racing blades gave him an unfair advantage and that he should be banned from the Olympics and any other able-bodied race.
That ruling in May left him just a few weeks to qualify for Beijing, with his best hope a place in the 1,600 metres relay squad. He still needs to run close to 46 seconds flat to achieve that, a significant improvement on his best time of 46.36 seconds. The time he needs to qualify for the individual event is 45.55
The South African selectors have delayed naming their team for the Aug. 8-24 Games until July 17, leaving Lucerne as Pistorius' last hope to impress.
Organizers of the meet are doing whatever they can to help.
"The field we have given Oscar should bring him close," said Terry McHugh, the former Irish javelin champion who sets the lineups at Lucerne. "You need a group of athletes who've got personal bests of 45.10 to 45.60. I've put the core of the race in that range and put him in the middle of it."
Pistorius had a disappointing run in his first qualifying attempt at Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. In his first race at the senior level this year, he ran out of energy in the final straight and timed 47.78.
"We had only a month and a half to prepare after the court case so realistically it wasn't going to be the best race," he said. "It was a combination of a lot of little things that added up to a terrible time and a terrible performance. But I've got no one to blame but myself."
Pistorius was born without fibulas - the long, thin outer bone between the knee and ankle - and was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the knee.
He said he is determined to get Olympic selection on merit and not sympathy.
"If I make the team I don't want to be the reserve for the relay, I want to be in the top four," he said. "I want to bring something to the race and make the relay stronger."
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