Indeed they are.

While Pistorius’s time of 46.68 seconds for the distance wouldn’t make the top 10 on the able-bodied men’s all-time list, it is still very respectable.

It is also faster than the no doubt drug-assisted women’s record set by East Germany’s Marita Koch in 1985.

The Paralympics have arrived, fully.

And Pistorius, despite his unsportsmanlike outburst a week earlier, embodies their arrival with his sheer determination.

Brazilian Alan Oliveira, who pipped him at the post in the 200m, was nowhere to be seen.

Despite the magnitude of Pistorius’s 400m effort, for true grit and drama it would be hard to match Fanie van der Merwe’s last-gasp lunge in the 100m.

Seemingly beaten by China’s Yongbin Liang, Van der Merwe dived for the line,  to win by a margin so small that he and Yongbin were given the same  time in setting a world record.

All round, our Paralympians performed heroically.

They should be welcomed accordingly on their return tomorrow.