Sir Roger Bannister was on good form at the opening of the Art at the Edge exhibition at the Ashmolean. Sir Roger was invited to open Sculpture and Sport: a celebration for 2012 because the show will move on to the London Olympics in August. Sir Roger’s recollections of White City, in 1948, were a reminder of the informality of earlier games. It is a great pity that he was not in the best of health at the time he was invited to open the 2012 Games because he would have done a brilliant job.

This is an inspirational exhibition but, apart from Judo by Sophie Dickens, the 29 competition winners’ work cast in bronze by Pangolin Editions, is small-scale. I do hope some will find backers to turn them into full size sculptures, especially the elegant life- enhancing piece by our own John Buckley. I think everyone in Oxford will have seen at least one piece of John’s work — the shark in Bill Heine’s roof — but may not be aware of work that is close to his heart. He told me: “I have been involved in representing the effects on land mine victims for 20 years, the subject for my sculpture Blade Runner [pictured] captures the human movement at speed along with the crippling devastation that mines inflict on their victims.”

Oscar Pistorius, the South African double amputee, famously described as Blade Runner, said: “You are disabled by the disabilities you have but abled by the abilities.”

The youngest winner is Charlotte Barker whose Paralympic Sprinting (pictured) was the result of close co-operation with a blind runner. The tether used to guide the athlete and braille are subtly merged into the image.

Most of the art commissioned for the Olympics is community art and so we should be grateful to Justin Braithwaite of Art on the Edge for organising this exhibition. It is at the Ashmolean until May 20 on display in the the Human Image Gallery (free admission).