Oscar Pistorius makes Olympic history

Describing the crowd as "amazing," he told BBC Sport that he had run so many times in the UK that it now felt like a second home.

The race marked a major milestone in the history of the Olympics – and a victory in the athlete's battle to be allowed to compete alongside able-bodied runners.

Critics, including four-time Olympic champion and BBC pundit Michael Johnson, have said Pistorius should not be racing, because they believe his prosthetic legs could give him an unfair advantage.

Last week, the South African said his performance was the result of "hard training and sacrifice" and not the blades.

In today's heat, he finished ahead of five other competitors, including Renny Quow, from Trinidad and Maksim Dyldin, from Russia.

Since taking up sprinting in 2004 Pistorius has established himself as the world's fastest amputee athlete by a wide margin, winning four gold and one bronze medals in the Paralympics. In 2008, he won the 400 metres by more than three seconds.

The athlete was born without fibula bones and had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old.

However, prosthetic legs allowed him an active childhood, and he became a keen sports man.

"I grew up not really thinking I had a disability," he has said. "I grew up thinking I had different shoes."

Today's performance was a victory in a sustained battle to convince the authorities to let him also compete in the Olympics.

At first, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rejected his claims that carbon fibre limbs offer no technological advantage against able-bodied athletes.

A 2007 study suggested the athlete used 25 per cent less energy than runners with natural legs.

The findings were used by the IAAF to ban him from abled-bodied events.

However, the ruling was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in May 2008 which decided not enough account had been taken of his considerable disadvantages accelerating at the start.

The decision meant Pistorius was eligible to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but he did not qualify for the South African team.

Earlier this year, it seemed he would miss out on London 2012. Despite running two Olympic qualifying times over the past 12 months, he failed to meet South Africa’s own strict criteria.

But South African officials changed their decision just weeks before the 2012 London Olympics games. Pistorius described his selection as "one of the proudest days of my life".

Johnson, the current 400-metre world record holder, has said that disabled athletes who use prosthetic limbs should not be allowed to compete in able-bodied races, in case they have an "unfair advantage".

Although the pair are good friends, Johnson suggested that able-bodied athletes could become resentful if they were beaten by those with specially-developed 'limbs'.

Last month, Johnson said: "Because his personal best is 45 seconds – and that is not enough to win medals – people generally will take the approach [that] he should be allowed to run, 'let him run, it's great.'

"The issue here, and how it has to be approached, is that it has to be approached not taking into account any particular athlete – so this has to not be about Oscar Pistorius," he said.

Last week Pistorius said he was using the same type of prosthetic legs which other athletes have used since 1996, and since he started running in 2004.

He said: "If the blades give so much of an advantage then why aren't other athletes who have them running as fast as me? People say I must have an advantage because my legs are lighter. But I've got less blood running through them and don't have the tendons in my ankles. People don't talk about that."

Pistorius insisted: "Any improvements since I've started have not been from any aid or any changes made. They've been through hard training and a lot of sacrifice."

On Thursday his personal trainer said that he trained Pistorius for six months before realising that the athlete had no legs.

Jannie Brooks, who has trained the athlete for almost a decade, said he had no clue about the disability when Pistorius and other high school teenagers asked for help with their training.

Brooks said: "He trained with me for about six months before I knew he didn't have legs ... because he was doing everything at the same pace as everybody else, no excuses for not making any exercises, he was doing it flat out."

The trainer said that the athlete, who had been training in a tracksuit through the winter, only explained his circumstances when he struggled with one exercise, after six months.