JOHANNESBURG, June 5 (Reuters) – South African former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was spotted taking part in a triathlon last weekend in the coastal city of Durban, 12 years after murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a crime that drew worldwide attention.

Pistorius, 38, was freed from jail in January 2024 after completing more than half his sentence and is on parole until his sentence expires in 2029.

Singabakho Nxumalo, spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services, said Pistorius had approval to attend the race, the Ironman 70.3 Durban.

“There was no breach in terms of his parole conditions,” Nxumalo said.

Afrikaans-language news website Netwerk24 first reported Pistorius’ participation in the event on Wednesday.

Conrad Dormehl, an attorney for Pistorius, confirmed to Reuters that Pistorius had featured in the Durban race.

“This forms part of his rehabilitation into society. Whilst he particularly enjoyed participating in the event and seems to have been bitten by the bug that is triathlon sport, he isn’t eyeing any comeback into competitive running just yet,” he said.

Pistorius – dubbed “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetic legs – shot dead 29-year-old model Steenkamp through a locked bathroom door on Valentine’s Day in 2013.

He repeatedly said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and launched multiple appeals against his conviction on that basis.

His release on parole after about eight and a half years in jail, as well as seven months under house arrest, provoked a raw response in a country scarred by violence against women.

Netwerk24 published a photograph of Pistorius riding a bicycle with the race number 105, his distinctive tattoo and prosthetic legs visible.

Reuters contacted the photographer who gave the news agency permission to publish images similar to the one Netwerk24 used.

Results published online by sports-timing company SportSplits show an athlete called Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius with race number 105 came 555th among all participants in the Ironman race and third in the “physically challenged” category.

The course involved a 2-km swim, a 90-km bike ride and a 21-km run – a total distance of 70.3 miles.

Pistorius was once a darling of the sports world, and a pioneering voice for disabled athletes, for whom he campaigned to be allowed to compete with able-bodied participants at major sports events.

He won six gold medals over three Paralympic Games in Athens, Beijing and London, and competed in able-bodied races at the London 2012 Olympics.

(Additional reporting by Mark Gleeson, Alexander Winning, Maria Paula Laguna and Siphiwe Sibeko; Editing by Alexander Winning and Alex Richardson)