Pistorius hails new 100m king Peacock

London: Oscar Pistorius paid tribute to Jonnie Peacock after the Briton ran off with his 100m crown on Thursday, saying the Games had witnessed the start of a stellar career in Paralympic sport.

Peacock won the T44 100m title at the Olympic Stadium in a new Paralympic record time of 10.90 seconds in the London 2012 Games’ showpiece event.

Richard Browne of the United States won silver in a personal best time of 11.03 seconds while South Africa’s Arnu Fourie edged out his compatriot Pistorius for the bronze in an African record of 11.08.

“What we’ve seen tonight is the start of an amazing Paralympics sprinter,” the 25-year-old Pistorius said of Peacock, who turned 19 in May.

“I’ve just been watching it on the screen again and it was a great performance,” he told Britain’s Channel 4 television.

“I can’t imagine how happy he must be to do this in front of his home crowd.

“Well done, it’s a great time for him. He’s still young and he’s got a great future ahead of him.

“I was hoping to finish in the medals but the 100 is not my thing. My roommate (Fourie) pipped me on the line for third.”

Peacock said the experience was “absolutely surreal”.

“For the past four days, this event being quite late on, you’ve got these guys going out getting gold and you just want to be part of that,” he said.

“I knew this crowd was going to be intense.

“(But) I didn’t think it was going to be that crazy. I was like, ‘who’s going to get a bigger cheer, Oscar or me?’

“It was just surreal. I had to tell them to be quiet after a while.

“About 60m I started to think... ‘I’m in the lead. What’s going on here?’

“I was rocking a little bit. It was crazy.”