South African sensation Oscar Pistorius completed a hat trick of gold medals in sprint events at the Beijing Paralympics on Tuesday as host China crossed the 200-medal mark.
Pistorius, dubbed the "Blade Runner" for the J-shaped carbon-fiber blades he uses, won the 400m final in a world record time of 47.49 seconds to add to his titles in 100m and 200m. He bettered his own world recod by more than two seconds.
"I'm delighted to break the world record. I have a lot of pressure on this competition," said the 21-year-old.
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.
Pistorius had sought to compete in last month's Beijing Olympics but eventually failed to reach the qualifying standard. He said had it not been for the legal case with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which ruled his J-shaped blades gave him an advantage over able-bodied athletes, he might have qualified for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Canadian wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc reached the top of the podium for the fifth time after she clocked a fastest time of 3 minutes 39.88 seconds in women's 1,500m T54 final.
Petitclerc, 39, had also won 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m in her class. She joins swimmers Natalie du Toit of South Africa and Matthew Cowdrey of Australia as the most titled athlete in Beijing.
The Chinese juggernaut kept rolling on the penultimate day of the Paralympics, raking in seven more gold medals to lead the medal count with 87 golds and 207 in total. Britain was a distant second on the ladder with 42 golds and 102 medals, and the United States third with 36 golds and 98 overall.