On the same morning that Oscar Pistorius made history for his run in the mens 400-metre, the defending Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt pulled up lame in his heat, ending his hopes at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Pistorius became the first ever double amputee to compete in an Olympic Games when he ran in the first heat of todays event. "I didnt know whether to cry. I had a mixture of emotions. It was the most amazing experience, the crowd was amazing," said Pistorius after the race. The South African coasted through the finish line with a season-best time of 45.44s, which was good enough for second place in his heat behind Dominican Luguelin Santos. Merritt, who suffered a hamstring injury at a Diamond League event in July, was not able to complete his run pulling up lame before the final turn. "Its my left leg. I injured it in Monaco, I felt a cramp there. It felt like a bad bruise. I feel its now a question of going back to being 100 per cent. I can move it (the leg), its not dead," said Merritt. Before London 2012 the American insisted leading up to the event that the injury would have no effect on his performance, however the injury will most likely end his Olympics. When asked whether he could still run the 4x400m relay Merritt replied, "I have some more time before the relay, if I still feel it (the injury to his left hamstring), I will let someone else run." His absence from the field opens the door for a number of athletes to capture Olympic gold in the 400m. Reigning world champion Kirani James from Grenada, Demetrius Pinder from the Bahamas, Santos and the Borlee twins from Belgium all had very strong runs in the qualifier and are very much in the mix. Pistorius now has a greater chance to make Olympic history by being the first amputee to make it out of the semi-final and challenge for an Olympic medal. cheap nfl jerseys . A trip to the Santiago Bernabeu looked to have consigned City to the harshest of starts to the continents premier club competition but the English champions will be relishing the chance to pile more misery on Madrid. The Spanish giants have dropped eight points from a possible 12 in the defence of their La Liga title, leaving the team in the unusual position of mid-table and prompting heavy criticism from coach Jose Mourinho about the players lack of commitment and spirit. cheap jerseys china . - It was textbook London Knights hockey and it was too much for the under-performing Edmonton Oil Kings. http://www.cheapjerseyschina.cc/ . All in all, the Red Sox couldnt have found a better way to end a whirlwind weekend. Lester allowed four hits over seven innings, Ortiz went 4 for 4 with his 20th home run and Boston used a 5-0 victory Sunday to earn their first series win over the Orioles in two years. cheap jerseys from china . Jones made 24 saves for his third shutout in five games, and the remarkable rookie led the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. wholesale jerseys . The 20-year-old Cizikas scored a career-high 64 points for the Mississauga St. Michaels Majors in the OHL this season, and added another 19 points in the OHL playoffs and three points in the Memorial Cup before the Majors fell to the Saint John Sea Dogs in the Finals. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Columbus Blue Jackets learned something from a humiliating defeat two nights earlier. Ryan Johansen and R.J. Umberger each scored two goals and the Blue Jackets pulled away in the third period to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 on Saturday night. The game came 48 hours after the Blue Jackets led 3-0 after two periods and 4-2 with 5 minutes left in Philadelphia, with the Flyers scoring five times in the final period in a 5-4 win. "(Tonight) we kept going after them," Umberger said. "We didnt sit back. We were on our heels in Philadelphia and they got some momentum. But tonight we just kept rolling." David Savard had a goal and an assist and Boone Jenner also scored, while Nikita Nikitin and Corey Tropp each had two assists for the Blue Jackets, who said they were embarrassed by the Thursday collapse. "We didnt play our game (in Philadelphia)," Johansen said. "From the first couple of shifts tonight, we were on. We stuck with it through some adversity -- a couple of injuries, a couple of penalties." Tempering the victory was the loss of Blue Jackets forward Marian Gaborik, who broke a collarbone in the first period and is out indefinitely. This time the Blue Jackets watched a 2-0 lead vanish in 20 seconds late in the second period, but then took control at the outset of the third. Savard took a pass from Nikitin at the 3:36 mark, adjusted to avoid a defender and then slid a rising shot from the right point that beat Ray Emery high on the stick side. Just over 2 minutes later, Savard returned the favour by passing to Nikitin at the left point. His shot, with the Flyers slow to flow back into position, was redirected by Jenner in the slot to push the lead to two. "Obviously, weve got to be better defensively," said Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who had two of his clubs late goals at Wells Fargo Arena. Johansen, who had opened the scoring, then flicked a wrister past Emery on a 2-on-1 break to make it 5-2 with 7:38 left. Umberger then added an empty-netter. "It was a gutsy win, for a lot of reasons," said coach Todd Richards. "You go back to Thursday night and how we lost that game. Tonight we gave up two quick goals as the second period ended, were missing two key elements of our team (forward Matt Calvert also had his arm in a sling after the game) so we were playing short-handed, and we gave up five power plays. And we still came out and won..dddddddddddd" Curtis McElhinney, victimized for all the goals on Thursday night, made the lead stand up with 33 saves. "That was a tough game there on Thursday, to give up five goals in the third period," he said. "This is certainly a nice, big win for us. Its important that everybody relishes this tonight." The Blue Jackets, much like the earlier meeting, got off to a good start only to lose it. At the 10:43 mark of the first period, Gaborik, just back after missing 17 games with a sprained left knee, got off a shot that was pushed aside by Emery. Nick Foligno collected the puck along the back wall and skated to the other side of the cage where he fed Johansen, who lifted a shot from the right doorstep for his 13th of the year. Gaborik, sandwiched between Braydon Coburn and Zac Rinaldo on his shot, got up slowly and immediately skated off the ice to the dressing room. The club announced between periods that the veteran, with 341 goals and 345 assists in 686 games, had a broken collarbone and would be out indefinitely. After James Wisniewskis hard slap shot from the right point was redirected by Umberger into the net made it 2-0, the Flyers responded. On a 3-on-2, Wayne Simmonds, who had two goals for Philadelphia, pulled up and wristed a shot from the high slot that beat McElhinney. Before that could be announced, Matt Reads pass from the short boards skipped past three Blue Jackets to Sean Couturier, who buried it for his seventh goal -- quieting a crowd of 14,090. But unlike what happened two nights before, the Blue Jackets dominated the third. "I dont think we were flat," Flyers coach Craig Berube said. "We made mistakes on their goals that will be easy to correct. They didnt have to happen." Simmonds felt the Flyers could have done more. "I dont think we competed as hard as we did the other night," he said. "Thats what happens. They were definitely determined to win tonight. The looked like they wanted it more than us." Notes: Philadelphia also announced just before the game that D Nicklas Grossman (flu) would be out and that RW Steve Downie would miss 7-10 days (upper body). ... The Flyers Erik Gustafsson went off with a left knee injury after a third-period collision with Columbus Corey Tropp. ... Referee Dan ORourke, kicked in the chest by a skate in the first period, left the ice after Johansens first goal and did not return. cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '