He may have missed out on the Olympics last month, but Oscar Pistorius thrilled the crowd at a wet Bird's Nest stadium yesterday with victory over his three American rivals in the 100 metres final.

Marlon Shirley, the defending champion, fell at 60 metres and Pistorius was trailing until his final two strides, when he caught Jerome Singleton to win by three hundredths of a second in 11.17sec. Brian Frasure, the 35-year-old prosthetician, who fitted Pistorius and Singleton, both 21, with their first prosthetics ironically, just avoided being tripped accidentally by Shirley, to win bronze.

Frasure had taken silver in Athens in 2004 when he and Shirley held off Pistorius, who is slower out of the blocks and less effective in the wet conditions because he is a double amputee. This race had an edge because it was the first meeting between Pistorius and Shirley since Athens, where Shirley suggested that the South African had been “racing tall”, with his prosthetics artificially increasing his stride length. Pistorius has spent the past four years challenging the perception that his running blades give him an advantage, winning his court battle with the IAAF this year, but failing to reach the Olympic qualifying standard for the 400 metres.

“It's no secret that he's [Shirley] pulled out of a lot of the races we've both been entered in over the last four years,” Pistorius said. “We were all gaining on him, so I don't think the result would have changed much even if he had finished the race.

“After Athens, the 100 metres was something that has been on my mind. Winning the 100 metres means you can say you're the fastest.”

That is a claim certainly that British Cycling can make after winning five events in the velodrome yesterday to take their total to nine. The haul sent Great Britain back to the top of the medals table in the afternoon before China overtook them. Simon Richardson and the tandem pair of Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter, in the individual pursuit, won their second gold medals of these Games, as did Darren Kenny. Mark Bristow, Jody Cundy and Kenny won their onekilometre time-trial events in world-record times and for Cundy, 29, who won in 1min 5.466sec, breaking his record by more than three seconds, it marked a smooth transition from the pool after winning three gold medals and two bronzes in his three previous Paralympics.

Sascha Kindred confirmed his status as Britain's best male swimmer by winning the 100 metres breaststroke for the third successive Games, having done the same in the 200metres individual medley on Sunday. Kindred was third at the turn, but powered past Blake Cochrane, of Australia, to finish in 1min 22.18sec and lower his world record by more than half a second.