The deeply religious South African runner, who prays each time he prepares to take to the race track- Oscar Pistorius

"Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

For six or seven hours in July, Oscar Pistorius lay face down in an American tattoo parlour as 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 was inked across the length and breadth of his back.

Each time he knelt in his blocks at the recent World Athletics Championships in Daegu, parts of the Bible excerpt could clearly be spotted peeping out of the side of the running vest of the biggest draw of the championships aside from Usain Bolt.

The message is a poignant one for the deeply religious South African runner, who prays each time he prepares to take to the race track.

"It's something important to me," he says, speaking during a week-long visit to London in the days after his historic displays in Daegu. "It was something that I read and I really liked it. There's different things I like - the reference to putting your body through its paces and subjecting yourself to hard work, the aspects about preaching to others."

Pistorius is clearly at peace with the message, so much so that he fell asleep while the tattoo artist emblazoned the words over his back.

They are the words of St Paul, whose ultimate goal was to seek the approval of Christ while Pistorius's, at least from the outside looking in, appears to be more simple - approval by the Paralympic and Olympic movements and the ability to compete at both events.