Oscar Pistorius has apologised for the timing of his comments following his loss in the Paralympic T44 200m final.

The South African claimed gold medallist Alan Oliveira’s artificial legs were too long and criticised the International Paralympic Committee.

In a statement, he said: “That was Alan’s moment and I would like to put on record the respect I have for him.

“I want to apologise for the timing of my comments but I do believe there is an issue here.”

The world record holder was overhauled by Oliveira in the final 20 metres. The Brazilian clocked 21.45 seconds, with Pistorius second in 21.52.

The IPC said all artificial legs – known as blades – adhered to strict regulations and had been verified and agreed before the race.

But immediately after his loss, Pistorius told Channel 4: “We are not running in a fair race here. I don’t know how you can come back, watching the replay, from eight metres behind on the 100 to win. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Oliveira said the comments of his “idol” were hard to take.

“The length of my blades is all right,” he said. “I went through all the procedures with the referees. I believe Pistorius also knows that.”

Pistorius set a new world record of 21.30 seconds when qualifying for the final on Saturday, breaking the mark of 21.88 set by Oliveira in his own heat two races earlier.

Pistorius issued his apology on Monday.

“I accept that raising these concerns immediately as I stepped off the track was wrong,” he said. “I am a proud Paralympian and believe in the fairness of sport. I am happy to work with the IPC, who obviously share these aims.”

Pistorius first contacted the IPC six weeks ago to complain about the length of another athlete’s blades. His PR team made further representations two weeks ago. The IPC said it was the first time it had been lobbied in this way by an athlete or team.

IPC communications director Craig Spence said they wanted to meet Pistorius as soon as possible.

“We agreed to meet him at a later date so he could he raise his questions in a formal environment away from the emotion of the stadium,” Spence said.

“The IPC respects the significant role Oscar has played in raising the global profile of Paralympic Sport since his Games debut in 2004. Therefore we are more than willing to give him an opportunity to air his views in a non-emotional environment at a meeting to be organised at a later date.

“[Before the final] we measured all eight athletes in the call room. This was done by an international classifier…so all eight were legitimate to race.

“The measurement is based on proportionality of the body. Clearly we don’t want athletes running on stilts. We want athletes with a running prosthesis that is in proportion to their body.”

Peter van de Vliet, the IPC’s medical and scientific director, said the formula that governed the maximum length of blades was complex and took into account various body measurements and height predictions.

“You cannot compare two athletes,” he said. “You cannot compare two sets of blades, two sets of prostheses.

“We will listen to Oscar’s questions. For the moment, the rules go with maximum allowed height.

“When these formulas were developed they were presented to athletes, coaches and feedback collected. We got the notice that it was the best system in place that we could go with to the comfort and satisfaction of everyone involved.”