Records tumble as Pistorius escapes punishment

The London Paralympics were on course to break an unprecedented number of world records as the Games hit half-way Tuesday, while Oscar Pistorius found out he will not be sanctioned for his outburst. As yet more benchmarks tumbled on the Olympic Park, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said South African sprint star Pistorius would face no action for his trackside comments about the running blades of Brazil's Alan Oliveira, who handed him a shock defeat on Sunday. Around London, the wheelchair fencing got under way and the first boccia medals were handed out at the ExCeL exhibition centre, while the equestrian events came to a close with Britain topping the medal table at Greenwich Park. The IPC said the 2012 athletes were on course to break more world records than the 279 achieved in Beijing four years ago. In the first half of the Games to Tuesday, 137 new world records were set, with a further 81 new Paralympic bests. Some 197 medals had been won by athletes from 63 countries, in the 228 completed medal events of the 503 at the Games, with China well ahead of Great Britain, Russia and Australia at the top of the table. "The fact is our athletes are getting better. They're training full-time. This is not just a hobby sport. It's professional sport at its very best," said IPC spokesman Craig Spence. He also said there would be "no disciplinary action against Oscar" after the 25-year-old hit out at Oliveira following his defeat, when the double below-the-knee amputee sensationally lost his first T44 200m race in nine years. He claimed his rival and other competitors in the race had a much longer stride length due to his "taller" carbon fibre prostheses. Reclusive North Korea meanwhile made its maiden appearance at the Paralympics but 16-year-old swimmer Rim Ju-Song trailed in last in his S6 50m freestyle swimming heat. "I'm very honoured to be the first Paralympian. I'm encouraged that many people cheered for me," said the wild card, who lost his left arm and left leg in a construction site accident aged six. The normally raucous 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium fell silent for the men's F11 long jump final, in which athletes with little or no vision take off aided only by the sound of their coaches' calls. To give the competitors the best chance of performing well, the venue descended into a rare hush. "I have been waiting for this day for almost 10 years," said Ukraine's Ruslan Katyshev won the 2012 Games gold with a personal best of 6.46 metres. "I was nervous but I was trying to hold my emotions." Kovan Abdulraheem was to become the first Kurdish athlete to represent Iraq in the Paralympic Games when the 24-year-old takes part in a discus final. Abdulraheem, who was born with dwarfism, will also compete in the javelin and shot put this week. Britain's Prince Harry, making a low-key return to public duties after naked pictures emerged of him partying in Las Vegas, watched the swimming and goalball and met British discus thrower Derek Derenalagi, who was initially pronounced dead when he lost both his legs in a blast in Afghanistan in 2007. In the wheelchair tennis, British flag bearer Peter Norfolk -- dubbed the "quadfather" -- crashed out in what he called an "appalling" shock quarter-final defeat in his bid for a third straight quad Paralympics gold. Brazil won the first boccia gold of the Games, beating the Czech Republic 5-3 in the BC4 mixed pairs.