Paralympics 2012: Pistorius breaks world record

Oscar Pistorius started his London Paralympic campaign by smashing the 200 metres T44 world record in his heat on Saturday.

The South African, who runs with carbon fibre prosthetic blades, ran 21.30 enroute breaking Brazilian Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira's earlier record.

Called the 'Blade Runner', Pistorius will be defending the 100m, 200m and 400m Paralympic titles he won at the 2008 Beijing event.

The 25-year-old, who is a favourite to clinch gold in the 200m event, had run in the recently  concluded Summer Olympics too, thereby becoming the first ever amputee athlete to represent a country in both the showcase events.