Alan Oliveira smashes 100m world record

Brazil’s Alan Oliveira, the 200m T43/44 Paralympic champion is now the fastest leg amputee runner on earth after obliterating the 100m T43 world record on Saturday (15 June) at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Berlin, Germany.

The 20 year old led from start to finish to record a legal and official time of 10.77 seconds.

His time is 0.14 seconds faster than the previous T43 world record of 10.91 which was jointly held by South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, set in April 2007, and USA’s Blake Leeper posted last July.

The time is also 0.08 seconds faster than the 100m T44 world record of 10.85 seconds held by Great Britain’s Jonnie Peacock, which was unofficially equalled last Saturday by USA’s Richard Browne.

In the build-up to this weekend’s races in Berlin and the US Paralympics Track and Field National Championships in San Antonio, Texas, it was Paralympic 100m silver medallist Browne who was the most vocal about breaking world records. The 21 year old even went as far as claiming that the 100m race at next month’s IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France would be a two horse race between him and Paralympic champion Peacock.

However, Oliveira has gone quietly about his business all season and must now start as favourite for the 100m and 200m world titles next month. In April this year, Oliveira made his intentions clear for the 100m running 10.95 at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, Oliveira took bronze running 11.43 seconds finishing behind USA’s Jerome Singleton (11.34) in gold and Pistorius (11.34) in silver.

On hearing the news of Oliveira’s world record, Britain’s Jonnie Peacock tweeted: “gonna be a fun year :)”

The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France will be the biggest gathering of international athletes since London 2012, with 1,300 athletes from 90 countries expected to compete.

For further information, please visit the official website for the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships.