On the first day of athletics action at the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium South Africa’s double amputee track sensation broke the Games record in his 100m heat.

Pistorius clocked 11.16secs and set his sights on a world record in Tuesday’s final.

“I’m really excited for what’s going to come tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a very memorable race,” he said.

“The 100m is not my specialty but the guy who wins the 100m is the fastest runner and at the end of the day it’s a title I’d like to have,” said Pistorius, nicknamed after the carbon fibre blades he wears.

The 21-year-old said the world record of 10.91secs was in his sights. “I hope to run under 11 (secs) tomorrow. That’s going to my goal. With the extra competition from Marlon (Shirley) and Brian (Frasure) that will definitely be possible.”

Pistorius, who holds the world marks in his category for the 100m, 200m and 400m, won a court battle to compete at last month’s Olympics but failed to qualify and now has his sights set on the London 2012 Games.

Meanwhile, high-profile Olympian du Toit won the 100m freestyle gold in her category to go with her 100m butterfly win.

The 24-year-old, who finished 16th in the 10 kilometre marathon swim in the Olympics, is aiming for three more wins to match her gold tally at the Athens Paralympics.

“I was expecting to do a little bit more than I did. But I got out there and I just did my best. But I’m not a sprinter,” du Toit said.

“I’m going to have two days off so I’ll have a massage and then come back and swim the 50m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley. There’s going to be some great races.”

Du Toit won five golds and a silver at the Athens Paralympics. She lost her left leg in a road accident in 2001, after narrowly missing qualification for the Sydney Olympics a year earlier.

China had eight golds at the end of day two of competition along with the United States, with Britain on seven and Australia six. However, China had 28 medals in total, compared with 17 for the United States, 15 for Britain and 21 for Australia.

China, which topped the medals table at the 2004 Athens Paralympics with 63 golds ahead of Britain and Canada, is widely expected to dominate again – and even more comprehensively than at last month’s Olympics.

More than 4,000 competitors from nearly 150 countries and regions are battling for 472 gold medals in 20 sports at the eye-catching venues used for the Olympics such as the “Bird’s Nest” and the Water Cube.

The sports at the Paralympics, which ends on September 17, include athletics, swimming, powerlifting, wheelchair fencing and five-a-side and seven-a-side football, as well as the lesser-known goalball and boccia.

China, eager to showcase the progress it has made in catering for the disabled, has adopted the motto “Two Games with Equal Splendour,” for the Games, comparing them with the Olympics.

“F—ing awesome!” The ensuing pre-match conversation was filled with enough expletives to fill eight swear jars. Her mission at the Paralympics was going to be very difficult because blocking her path was a woman holding arguably the longest winning streak of any professional athlete in history.

Esther Vergeer, the Dutch wheelchair tennis player, entered the Games on the back of 344 straight victories spanning five years. Rocky Marciano (49 heavyweight boxing bouts), Rafael Nadal (81 straight wins on clay) and Ed Moses (122 consecutive 400 metres hurdles races) are in her statistical shade. The China Daily News stretched the truth the length of the Great Wall by calling Vergeer “the greatest athlete in the world”, but still, a win-loss record of 344-0 is an extraordinary accomplishment.

Vergeer arrived in Beijing feeling suitably confident, but simultaneously sick with worry. “Every day, every match, I think, ‘Is this it? Is this the one I lose?”‘ To her absolute mortification, the last person to beat her, back in 2003, had come out of retirement for the Paralympics. Guess who. That’s right, Di Toro.

Di Toro became a paraplegic at the age of 14 when a wall collapsed on her at a school swimming carnival in Melbourne. Having collected nine Australian Open titles, a couple of US Opens and a few minor Paralympic medals, on top of the world No.1 ranking before Vergeer, she quit after finishing with a bronze at Athens. Fancying her chances at Beijng, she threw her hat in the ring one last time. Unbelievably, the 33-year-old drew her old rival Vergeer in the first round.

“Any athlete on the planet who has done what Esther has done is exceptional,” Di Toro said, expletives deleted, before taking to the court. “I have nothing but respect and love for that chick. By the same token, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could do it. I’m not here to make up the numbers and help fill a team, you know? I seriously wouldn’t be giving it a crack if I didn’t think I had something. Who knows, man? There is an aspect of love about this sport. I’d lost it, but it’s back. Tennis is a really beautiful sport.”

Di Toro admitted she had never been as ruthless as the obsessive Vergeer.

“She’s extraordinary and works her frigging arse off,” Di Toro said, most expletives deleted.

“She works really hard on any aspect of her game which even remotely falls short. Her commitment and dedication is incredible. She loves to win. I think that’s where we’ve always really differed. I don’t really love winning, to be honest. I love to play tennis and just get out there to hit the ball. She just loves to win.”

The stadium was full when Vergeer and Di Toro rolled out under floodlights. China has embraced the Paralympics like few people imagined. Most venues at most times of the day are mostly or completely full. The atmosphere was electric. The ball is allowed to bounce twice. They charged the net in their wheelchairs, did 360s when they were wrong-footed, so to speak, served big kickers and thumped topspin forehands.

Vergeer broke serve in the first game. Already, her groundstrokes looked drilled to perfection. For a forehand, she swivelled her chair sharply to the right, twisted her torso as far as possible and then unleashed. Di Toro was more adventurous, more attacking, trying more slices and angles, and broke back immediately. When she held her next serve, Vergeer was in unfamiliar territory – behind. She was muttering to herself and clenching her left fist as she snuck ahead. First set to Vergeer 6-2.

We’re assuming that if there’s one thing she has learned, it’s how to close out a match. Di Toro looked like more of a natural without having the same level of robotic consistency. Di Toro kept probing, but Vergeer was devoid of any weaknesses. It ended up a 6-,2 6-0 win to send Vergeer’s streak to 345 matches. That is (expletive removed) awesome.

Ms Ellis watched Australia take on Great Britain in their second round pool match of the wheelchair basketball last night, clad in the opposition’s red, white and blue colours.

It was the result of betting against the Brits at the Olympic Games last month, when the sports minister claimed Australia would finish with more medals.

Much to her chagrin, Great Britain won 47 medals – just one more than the Aussies – to finish ahead of Australia on the medal tally for the first time in 20 years.

But sitting beside victorious UK sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe last night, Ms Ellis had the last laugh, with Australia romping to an easy 67-48 win over Great Britain.

“I’d just come from the swimming pool where I played a role in the medal ceremony for Matt Cowdrey, who’d just smashed the world record and won gold,” she said.

“Then I saw the Rollers just demolishing the team from Great Britain, so at that stage I was so ecstatic at Australia’s efforts I don’t think it would have mattered what I wore.”

Ms Ellis, who is in Beijing to support the Australian team as well as meet with Paralympic delegations from various countries, said she’d be wary of making any more bets in the future.

“I’m going to quit while I’m behind.”

Sports Minister Ellis eats humble pie in Beijing – Sport – smh.com.au

The organisers had promised an opening gala of “equal splendour” to the show that ushered in the Olympics and they did not disappoint, creating a glittering theatrical feast with a 6,000-strong cast that included hundreds of disabled performers.

It featured a sign-language dance by a troupe of 320 deaf girls, music and singing by blind musicians and a barrage of fireworks. However, the most memorable moment came when earthquake survivor Li Yue took centre stage in a wheelchair, dressed in a pink tutu, to perform a “hand ballet” to Ravel’s Bolero.

The gala ended with a lighting of the cauldron that was rich in symbolism as one-legged Chinese high-jumper Hou Bin used his own strength to haul himself and his wheelchair up to the roof of the stadium on a pully before igniting the flame to a thunderous roar from the 91,000 crowd.

Pointedly, however, the organisers chose to give wheelchair fencer Jin Jing the honour of bringing the Paralympic torch into the stadium. It was Jin who became known in China as the “angel in the wheelchair” after she stubbornly clung on to the torch in Paris in April as pro-Tibet protesters tried to wrestle it from her grasp.

The ceremony marked the beginning of 11 days of competition for more than 4,000 disabled athletes from 148 countries, including 206 from Britain. They were led into the stadium during the athletes’ parade by flag-bearer Danny Crates, a middle-distance runner who lost his right arm in a car accident 14 years ago.

The British team, who have finished second in the medals table at the last two Paralympics, are hoping to continue the success of Britain’s Olympic athletes in Beijing but have little chance of matching the might of the host nation, which dominated the Athens Games four years ago by winning 63 gold medals and is expected to win many more on home soil.

The 20 sports at the 13th Paralympics, which ends on September 17, include athletics, swimming, powerlifting, wheelchair fencing and two versions of football – five-a-side and seven-a-side – as well as the lesser-known goalball and boccia.

While another Chinese triumph is a foregone conclusion, what is less certain is the impact the Games will have on Chinese attitudes to disability.

China has 83 million disabled people, according to official figures, but many face prejudice and discrimination in a society were disability is still regarded as a source of shame.

Disabled rights campaigners hope the positive images of the Paralympics, starting with yesterday’s spectacular celebrations, will be a catalyst for change.