British teenager Jonnie Peacock upstaged the world’s most famous blade runner in the biggest race of the Paralympics - and then claimed he should have gone faster.
The 19-year-old from Doddington near March left Oscar Pistorius trailing in his wake as he claimed the 100 metres title on a night of triple gold for Great Britain.
The Cambridgeshire athlete, who lost his right leg to meningitis at the age of five, roared away to win in 10.90 seconds - a new Paralympic record and just 0.05secs off his own world record.
That Pistorius did not even get a medal showed the quality of the field.
Peacock said: “I am a little bit disappointed I didn’t go faster.
“The form I’ve been in the last few weeks, it is a bit of a shame. But to come out on this stage it really was a mental battle more than anything else.”
He proved more than capable of handling the occasion, dealing with a faulty start and even trying to quieten the chants of ‘Peacock, Peacock, Peacock’ which rang around the stadium before the start.
He added: “I didn’t know who would get a bigger cheer - Oscar Pistorius or me, because he is such a legend.
“I haven’t been nervous. I was doing my strides in warm-up and I was ready. I felt on form, I knew I had it in me.”
For Pistorius, who has now lost his 200m and 100m titles, it was the first time he had failed to win a medal in a Paralympic race.
The South African just wanted to pay tribute to Peacock, though, saying: “He really stepped up to the plate. You heard the chanting in the stadium tonight and for him to have performed the way he did it just shows what a talented athlete he is.”
Peacock’s triumph came just minutes after David Weir had continued his relentless pursuit of a golden quadruple by making it three out of three with a brilliant 800m triumph.
The wheelchair racer has established himself as the hero of the Olympic Stadium in the same way Mo Farah did at the Olympics, with confident, stylish and tactically-superb racing.
And the ‘Weirwolf’ was at his imperious best as he devoured a world-class field to deafening roars from the enthralled capacity crown, adding the T54 800m crown to his 1500m and 5,000m titles.
Weir, who has the marathon left to come on Sunday, now even has his own battle cry thanks to the werewolf howls his team-mates have developed, adapted from the rock song Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon.
And the 1970s track was played in the stadium ahead of the race.
“I feel like I’m on top of the world at the moment,” Weir said.
“I dreamt about it and wished I’d come away with three gold medals, with maybe another one on the way, but you just dream of things like that. I won’t believe it until I’m at home and can relax - then it might sink in a little bit more.”
Hannah Cockroft started the gold rush by storming to success in the T34 200m to add a second gold to her 100m crown.
Discus thrower Dan Greaves won silver, while there were bronzes for Paul Blake, Ben Rushgrove, Ola Abidogun and Beverley Jones.
The hosts’ eight medals took their total to 26, including nine golds.
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