Oscar back on track
OSCAR Pistorius returned to light training and was “overcome with emotion” as he pulled on his carbon fibre blades for a session at his usual practice facility on Thursday, his agent said.
Agent Peet van Zyl said yesterday he was contacted about a week ago by Pistorius, who expressed a desire to return to a regular track routine for the first time since the February 14 shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
“I think it’s huge for him,” said Van Zyl, who went with Pistorius to the University of Pretoria for the session.
“He [Pistorius] was overcome with emotion when he put on his blades.”
Pistorius described the experience as “bittersweet” to Van Zyl after the track session, the agent said, who also described Pistorius’ first formal session in around five months as “really emotional.”
Van Zyl said there were still no plans for Pistorius to run competitively and his return to the track involved “light stuff” that would help give Pistorius’ life a routine as he awaits a murder trial for the killing of Steenkamp. Van Zyl went to the track with Pistorius while his regular coach, Ampie Louw, is away on holiday.
In television footage of the session released by Pistorius’ family, the double-amputee Olympian is seen in a blue hooded sports top pulling on his blades while sitting on a chair on a sunbathed track. A bearded Pistorius does some light jogging in his blades, and then wipes his face with both hands as he walks off track.
“The actual word he used to me was bittersweet,” Van Zyl said of Pistorius’ training.
“He can’t be happy because of what’s happened.”
Pistorius’ next court appearance is on August19, when prosecutors may indict him and a date could be set for the start of his murder trial, possibly in September or October.
Pistorius denies murder in Steenkamp’s killing, saying he shot her accidentally in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day because he thought she was an intruder in his bathroom.
The 26-year-old Pistorius faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if he is convicted of premeditated murder.
In a statement on Pistorius’ website, his family confirmed he decided to resume running on track for a few hours a week for his own mental process.
It was “not aimed at preparing for competition,” they said.
Pistorius has said he will not run competitively for the rest of 2013 while he faces a likely lengthy trial, but will run regularly on the track while his court case continues.
“His focus at this time remains entirely on the court case,” the family said in the statement.
Pistorius has previously been seen just once on an athletics track since