Tuesday 21 October 2014 17:43, UK
After seven months of trial, psychiatric evaluation and sentencing hearing, finally - in the words of Judge Thokozile Masipa - justice has prevailed, writes Sky Sports News HQ’s Geraint Hughes.
Oscar Pistorius has been given a five-year prison sentence for the culpable homicide (manslaughter) of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
What happens to the 27-year old in the short term is clear - he is now inside Kgosi Mampuru II Prison as a convicted killer.
But in the longer term his future is a little less clear. Pistorius had set himself a target of achieving all he could in athletics so that he would retire after the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships, which are to be held in London at the Olympic Stadium.
He told me in an interview he gave just seven weeks before the tragic events of February 14th last year his career would be ending when he was 30, and it would finish on the big stage at the Olympic Stadium, competing with and alongside other non-disable athletes. That won’t happen now.
Pistorius’ athletics career is effectively over unless details emerge in the coming days about the terms of any house arrest which may reduce the time spent in jail.
Regardless of what form he serves his punishment, it will not be completed until 2019.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) told Sky Sports last month that Pistorius would not be allowed to compete at any IPC sanctioned event such as the Paralympics or World Championships until his full sentence was served, that rules out the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
The IPC today said the Paralympics were, “bigger than just one athlete” and there would be little impact on the Games in Brazil despite the absence of the movement’s most high profile athlete. However should he wish to, after 2019 he could compete at an IPC event.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) who welcomed Pistorius into their family as a competitor at London 2012 have not ruled out the South African from competing at the forthcoming Olympics.
Their Director of Communications Mark Adams said; “We take note of the court’s decision. This is a human tragedy for the family of Reeva Steenkamp and also for Oscar Pistorius. We hope very much that time will bring comfort to all those concerned but at this stage we have no further comment to make.”
That statement rules nothing in or out but some clarity is required on precisely how Pistorius will serve his sentence. Will it be ten months, then four years house arrest as one defence lawyer said or as a spokesman for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) argued, twenty months imprisonment then house arrest? The latter would see Pistorius released from jail during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
