Jonnie Peacock has a new leg. The Paralympic T44 100metres champion laughs, explaining he has a new prosthetic blade that is ‘slightly shorter and aligned differently’ because his muscles have got stronger.
His old one was two years old and was ‘rotating quite a lot’ as he blasted his way to the world record and then the Paralympic title in 2012. This one has a yellow flash on the side and will make its debut over 100m at the BT Great City Games in Manchester on Saturday.
Peacock, 19, seems proud to admit he is a ‘bit of a geek’ when it comes to his sport. He has only had a quick chat with UK Athletics’ mind mechanic Steve Peters, believing athletes can become overly reliant on the ‘security system’ of sports psychology. The elements that make a physical difference are more important to Peacock: nutrition, analysis of his technique and that all-important blade.
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Peacock has taken to fame in his own way and the contrast with his ‘mentor’, Oscar Pistorius, is particularly stark in the way he talks about his disability.
During an interview with the South African last year I know I irritated him with my incessant questions about his blades. Pistorius kept saying ‘they’re just low-key technology’ but I was fascinated by the ungainly way he hopped about on them between sprints. He needed those legs to run fast and yet he could not wait to get the blistering, sweaty, wretched things off.
Pistorius based his battle to run in able-bodied events on his claim that it was not about the blades, but his outburst following defeat by Oliveira at last summer’s Paralympics showed quite the opposite.Pistorius said Oliveira’s longer prosthetic legs were ‘unfair’ and ‘ridiculous’ and it caused huge controversy. Rightly so, because a sport that enables athletes to gain an unfair advantage within the woolly parameters of its own rules is no sport at all.
Peacock said: ‘I’ve heard — and I don’t know how true this is — that one of the athletes, who is a double amputee, was fully grown when he lost his legs, but with the IPC’s (International Paralympic Committee’s) new regulations he could add six inches on to his natural height. I don’t care. I’m just going to turn up and race whoever is there, whether he’s got 20-foot legs or one-foot legs. You’re there to win, but from what I hear the IPC ruling does feel a little bit silly and needs to be looked at. It sounds a bit stupid to me.’
Conflict: Oscar Pistorius (right) felt Alan Oliveira's blades were unfair after he was beaten in London last yearIn February the IPC adapted the rules governing an amputee athlete’s maximum height wearing their blades. The new, more scientific formula was initially accepted by all countries but then suspended until after July’s World Championships in Lyon. Some countries realised their athletes would have to make significant changes to their blades under the new rules.
I did the calculations myself, measuring my sitting height and the lengths of my femur and humerus bones and came out with a maximum height of 5ft 4in. I am 5ft 6in, by the way!
Further tests and more research into the IPC formula are ongoing, but this is an area that needs addressing now. The rivalry between Peacock and Oliveira could be the high-profile contest that keeps disability athletics moving forward in the post-Pistorius era. But the purity of a sprint race will be lost if there are even niggling doubts over the length of those blades. Peacock’s ability to concentrate solely on his own performance is admirable but the focus cannot and should not be solely on that shiny new leg.
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Emotional: David Beckham announced his retirement from playing after a spell with Paris Saint-Germain ...AND THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING THIS WEEKSaw Bradford promoted to League One by beating Northampton at Wembley on Saturday. I love the special atmosphere of the play-offs, even though it was not, as one Yorkshire chap opined, ‘like watching Brazil’...
Played table tennis with Ledley King at the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s Skills project. But would I just tap the ball back and smile for the camera? Oh no. I had to try to spin it and smash it all over the place. Will I ever learn?
Cringed at Delon Armitage’s play-acting after scoring the crucial try in Toulon’s Heineken Cup win. A stark contrast to Jonny Wilkinson, who provided an example of how to conduct yourself on the big sporting occasions.
Competitive: Laura Williamson met Ledley King and indulged in a game of table tennis
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