Oscar Pistorius in first appearance at sports event since murdering girlfriend

Oscar Pistorius has been spotted competing in a triathlon event 18 months after his release from prison for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The double amputee, dubbed ‘Blade Runner’ for his prosthetic legs, made his first public appearance at a sporting event since the 2013 killing at an Ironman 70.3 competition in Durban.

He shot model Steenkamp, 29, through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day 12 years ago.

His release on parole after about eight and a half years in jail, as well as seven months under house arrest, provoked a raw response in a country scarred by violence against women.

Netwerk24 published a photograph of Pistorius riding a bicycle with the race number 105, his distinctive tattoo and prosthetic legs visible.

Singabakho Nxumalo, spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services, said Pistorius had approval to attend the race, the Ironman 70.3 Durban.

Pistorius’s lawyer Conrad Dormehl said: ‘This forms part of his rehabilitation into society.

‘Whilst he particularly enjoyed participating in the event and seems to have been bitten by the bug that is triathlon sport, he isn’t eyeing any comeback into competitive running just yet.’

Results published online by sports-timing company SportSplits show an athlete called Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius with race number 105 came 555th among all participants in the Ironman race and third in the ‘physically challenged’ category.

The course involved a 2km swim, a 90km bike ride and a 21km run – a total distance of 70.3 miles.

Pistorius was once a darling of the sports world, and a pioneering voice for disabled athletes, for whom he campaigned to be allowed to compete with able-bodied participants at major sports events.

He won six gold medals over three Paralympic Games in Athens, Beijing and London, and competed in able-bodied races at the London 2012 Olympics.

Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp, a model and reality TV star, several times through the bathroom door with ammunition designed to inflict maximum damage to the human body.

He always claimed he shot his girlfriend in error after mistaking her for a dangerous intruder, saying he didn’t realise that she had got out of bed.

Pistorius was freed from jail in January 2024 after completing more than half his sentence and is on parole until his sentence expires in 2029.

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