South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who was charged with murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp back in February, won’t be welcome at this July’s London Grand Prix in Olympic Stadium, even though he’s been cleared to travel for competition.
“It would overshadow every other athlete that was there,” UK Athletics Chair Ed Warner told BBC Radio. “It’s not about innocent or guilty, it’s about how you handle an individual with a difficult moral situation hanging over them.
“Anything might change,” Warner added. “He is in court before then, but based on what I know at the moment, it would be a ‘no’ if he rang this morning.”
Event organizers think the media circus that would surround Pistorius would overshadow the rest of the Grand Prix, which will probably be true of any event he would choose to compete in before a judgment comes down. Earlier this month the IPC cleared Pistorius to race at the Paralympic Worlds in France this July.
Pistorius’s murder trial has been adjourned until June 4.