The 25-year-old South African, who plans to run at both the Olympics and Paralympics this summer, clocked 47.66 in a race won in 45.13 by Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt (pictured below, centre).

"The time was so bad!" Pistorius said.

"I don't know what to say.

"I can run that fast at the end of a tough training session or straight after getting up out of bed in the morning.

"The start actually wasn't that bad, but between 30 and 120 metres, there was nothing, far too slow.

"You could call that a really bad day.


"But I have no one else to blame apart from myself.

"I have to run two more meetings and then train in my base in Italy.

"I have to concentrate on myself, maybe work more on the start and hope this time can be forgotten."

Pistorius, who won his 400m with ease at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester earlier this week, failed to qualify for the 400m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after being cleared by CAS (the Court of Arbitration for Sport) to compete.

But he went on to compete at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, where he made the 400m semi-final and won a silver in the 4x400m relay, although he did not race the final.

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