Amir Khan pondering split with Roach New York mourns loss of ‘Linsanity’

MON , taly – ven when he’s looking at photos of his bleeding and blistered leg stumps, Oscar Pistorius smiles.

nd with his Olympic debut approaching, it’s easy to understand why.

Pistorius, whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was a baby, is set to make history by running – yes, running – in the London Olympics. He will be the first amputee athlete to compete at the Olympics, and his ourney has been long and rife with hurdles.

When he finally got word earlier this month that he had a place on South frica’s team – his was the last name of 125 penciled in – his first reaction was relief. Then came utter oy.

think woke up the ne t morning with cramps in my cheeks. was smiling in my sleep, Pistorius said during a recent interview at his training base in northeastern taly. ou also realize very quickly ... it’s the London Olympics and need to perform. Very stressful.

ou’ve made the entrance to write the test, but now the test is in front of you, he said.

The test comes ug. 4, the opening day of the 400-meter heats.

The lade unner, as he is known, runs with carbon-fiber blades that often cause blisters and rub his stumps raw. Pistorius was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect, and lost his legs at 11 months. t never stopped him from playing sports – even rugby – with prosthetics.

ut his running prosthetics led to years of controversy. lready a Paralympic gold medalist, Pistorius was initially banned from competing against able-bodied peers because many argued that his blades gave him an unfair advantage.

n 2008, however, the ourt of rbitration for Sport cleared him to compete. Last year, he ran on

LON ON – mir han is considering parting company with celebrated trainer Freddie oach following his convincing loss to anny arcia in Las Vegas last weekend.

The riton was dropped to the canvas three times by arcia before being stopped in the fourth round of a world light welterweight unification bout that saw han lose his W belt to the reigning W champion.

han insisted he had no-one else to blame for the defeat but himself.

However, he added he may have to review his backroom set-up if he was to revive a once promising career.

’m taking the whole blame in my own hands. t was my own fault, han told Sky Sports News on Wednesday.

There are a few things we should have not done in training camp that we could have done differently but that’s ust me and Freddie. We’ll sit down together, we’ll talk through it but ’ m the one in the ring, ’ m the one who made the mistakes.

’m not blaming anyone, ’ m the one who’s at blame really. My team did a great ob outside the bo ing ring.

Nevertheless, han added: ’m going to look at options, ’ve got a meeting with my team ne t week and we’re ust going to see.

t the moment ’ m happy with Freddie but there are a few things that want to change and ’ m going to speak to my team to see how they feel about things and we’ll ust take it from there.

’ m going to take my time, think about things, maybe watch the fight a few more times, see where need to improve on and see if Freddie can improve me in the departments.

t’s a very crucial part of my career. f am going to pick another need to be with the right trainer who’s going to take me where want to be and also the mistakes make, not to make them again. South frica’s 4 400 relay team at the 2011 world championships, and though he sat out the final, he won a silver medal because he competed in the heats.

Pistorius is aware that not everyone is convinced he should compete at all.

There will always be people who will debate, and there will always be a ournalist willing to write an opinion and a certain angle to a story, Pistorius said. There will always be someone who wants to create a name for himself, and if he’s given that platform he’ll take it and argue that wet is dry and green is red. There are always those types of people.

One of the reasons for doing the tests was proving that ’ m in a sport and have the ability to run due to my own talent and hard work and sacrifices, and that was important for me. Looking back at that, ’ m happy that we went through it.

merican LaShawn Merritt, the defending Olympic champion in the 400, looks forward to racing against the 25-year-old Pistorius.

’ve told him how much respect have for him and the drive he has, to want to do something and take the action to work hard and get to where he wants to be, Merritt said. The dream of his was to be able to run with the ablebodied athletes, and he knew what he had to do to make that happen, time-wise, and he worked his butt off to get it. He’s here now.

Pistorius and his team have been based in emona for the last two uropean seasons after the mayor asked him if he’d consider training there to promote the town, located near the talian lps, ust across the mountains from ustria.

Pistorius said he needed a track, ideally with the same Mondo surface as London’s Olympic Stadium.

N W O – New ork nicks fans awoke Wednesday to the headlines none wanted to see: nd of the Lin, Lin is one – for many the loss of star point guard eremy Lin felt like a betrayal.

The nicks confirmed late Tuesday that they wouldn’t match the Houston ockets’ three-year, 25 million offer for the emblematic 23-year-old.

We’re losing more than one player. He was a symbol of the city, ason utierrez, a 29-year-old musician, told AFP outside the N Store on Fifth venue in Manhattan.

ust si months ago, no one apart from diehard basketball fans had heard of eremy Lin and nicks coach Mike ’ ntoni was even considering releasing him before his contract became guaranteed.

n in ury to recently signed guard aron avis gave Lin his chance in February and what followed became know as Linsanity as the player sparked a seven-game winning streak for a team that had lost 11 of its last 13 games.

Thrilling New ork fans with his clutch shooting and passing skills, he quickly became a global sensation, especially in sia as his parents are from Taiwan and he has a grandmother from hina.