LONDON – South Africa's Oscar Pistorius brought the curtain down on a summer of thrills in the Olympic Stadium when he won the final Paralympic track gold medal with a dominant display in the men's 400 meters Saturday. It was a happy ending for Pistorius who finished the Paralympic Games with an individual gold after failing to successfully defend the 100 and 200 titles he won in Beijing four years ago. He also won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay. Pistorius finished nearly four seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Blake Leeper who was followed home by David Prince of the United States, while Brazil's Alan Oliveira, who beat the South African in the 200 this week, finished fourth. “This whole month, this whole season, I've had a lot of challenges and I have a lot to thank my coach for,” Pistorius, who also competed in the London Olympics last month, told Channel Four television. “I'm so proud, this summer has been a dream come true and I couldn't hope for anything better. It's my 11th time on this track and I wanted to give the crowd something special that they could take home with them.” Earlier, Britain's David Weir won the men's wheelchair marathon for his fourth gold of the Games. In a triumphant finish for the host nation, Weir — dubbed “the Weirwolf” — claimed a clean sweep of four golds out of four races, completing the gruelling 42-kilometer (26.2-mile) course in 1hr 30min 20sec.. “It's a dream come true,” the 33-year-old London Marathon veteran told Britain's Channel 4 television after beating great rivals Marcel Hug, the “Swiss silver bullet”, into silver and Kurt Fearnley of Australia into bronze. Weir, who was born with a severed spinal cord which left him unable to use his legs, won the T54 800m, 1,500m and 5,000m titles on the track. He also won the 800m and 1,500m middle-distance double in Beijing. Shirley Reilly of the United States took the gold in the women's wheelchair marathon, improving on the silver she won in the T54 5,000m and her bronze in the 1,500m. Spain's Alberto Suarez Laso earlier smashed his own world record as he won the men's T12 marathon for visually impaired athletes. Tito Sena of Brazil won the T46 marathon for athletes with one injured or amputated arm. Australia beat Canada for “murderball” – wheelchair rugby – gold. The men's blind 5-a-side football title went to Brazil for the third successive games by beating France 2-0. Canada wrested the wheelchair basketball title back from its old rival Australia Saturday with a hard-fought 64-58 victory in the final. As the last medals were won, attention shifted to the closing ceremony, which the show's artistic director has promised will be an emotional farewell to the Paralympic flame and a musical celebration of the human spirit. Organizers billed the Games as the biggest and most high-profile in Paralympic history, with more media attention than ever before and a record 4,200 athletes from more than 160 countries, including for the first time reclusive North Korea. London 2012 chief Sebastian Coe said that with 2.7 million tickets sold, packed venues and vocal crowds, the Games had not only created a global plaform for elite disabled sport but also helped change perceptions of people with disabilities. London was awarded the Olympics and Paralympics in 2005 and has had to face doubts in particular over the cost of the project, security and whether the city's creaking transport system could cope with a massive influx of visitors. But the efficient running of both events and the public response has defied naysayers who predicted chaos and a lack of enthusiasm. The president of the International Paralympic Committee, Philip Craven, said the challenge was to maintain interest between now and the next Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016 – as well as increase participation around the world. “We have to really concentrate on getting every country doing more Paralympic sport,” he added. The daughter of German-Jewish neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, who organized the first recognized sporting event for disabled people in southern England in 1948, also said there was more work to do, despite improvements since her father's time. — Agencies
