Pistorius, the reigning Paralympic and world champion, was the pre-race favourite but in a feat that echoed Tyson Gay's victory over world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt last year, Singleton downed his huge rival.

The single leg amputee, a 24-year-old from South Carolina, got off to the faster start before he was clawed back over the second half of the race by the Blade Runner.

But Singleton produced an epic dive at the line that saw him end up face first on the track but secure a famous victory by less than an inch in a photo finish in a season's best time of 11.34sec.

Pistorius also finished in 11.34 while Alan Forteles Cardoso Olive of Brazil finished third in 11.43.

Singleton told insideworldparasport: "Before the race, my coach told the dive at the line and I'm so glad I did.

"I've got no skin left on my hands where I fell on the track at the finish but it was worth it to win that gold and I still can't believe it.

"I thought I had him by a head on the big screen but it was a long wait to find out the winner and I was so worried until I saw the result.

"Beating Oscar is amazing and we are going to have a long rivalry.

"We're both 24, I'm a single leg amputee and he's a double and we going to see who is the fastest man on one leg or no legs leading into London 2012 and for the rest of our careers so it's going to be exciting."



Pistorius, who was beaten over the 100m in a major competition for the first time since the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, was humble in defeat as he said: "Credit to Jerome, he was the best man on the day.

"The 100m was always going to be my hardest event here but I can't complain.

"It was very tight but Jerome deserved the win."

The nail-biting race was the undoubted highlight of a high quality day five at Championships in which six world records fell.

Britain's Dan Greaves smashed his own world record by more than three metres in the discus F44 throw as his mark 58.98 metres eclipsed his previous best of 55.53m he set in Manchester six years.

American Jeremy Campbell took silver with a throw of 53.40m with the bronze going to Farzad Sepahvand, of Iran.

Michael McKillop of Ireland broke the world record in winning the 1500m T37 in 4:14.81.

However, MiKillop did not pick up gold as the competition is a non-medal event at these Championships.

Khaled Hanani finished second in the two man field in a time of 4:31.98.

In the men's 200m T37 final, South African Fanie Van Der Merwe suffered the disappointment of not only getting nosed out of the gold medal but also having his world record taken away by Algeria's Sofiance Hamdi

Both went under the old time with the Algerian winning by 0.03 in 23.64.

Mostafa Fathalla Mohamed of Egypt was third.

Cuba's Omara Durand was extremely impressive in the women's 200m T13 event, winning in 24.24 to claim a world record.

Second was Sanae Benhama of Morocco while South Africa's Ilse Hayes took the bronze.

In the afternoon session, Yohansson Nascimento of Brazil claimed victory and a world record in the 100m T46 in 11.01 ahead of silver medallist Guo Ni of China in 11.13 and bronze medallist Arnaud Assoumani of France in 11.18.

In the men's discus throw F57/58 final, Russia's Alexey Ashapatov claimed gold and a world record with a distance of 57.64m.

Metawa Abo Elkhir of Egypt was second with 54.96m while Germany's Ali Ghardooni took bronze with 44.29m.

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