Roger Black

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Olympic medal record
Men's Athletics
Silver 1996 Atlanta 400 metres
Silver 1996 Atlanta 4x400m relay
Bronze 1992 Barcelona 4x400m relay
World Championships
Silver 1987 Rome 4 x 400 m
Silver 1991 Tokyo 400 m
Gold 1991 Tokyo 4 x 400 m
Silver 1997 Athens 4 x 400 m
European Championships
Gold 1986 Stuttgart 400 m
Gold 1986 Stuttgart 4 x 400 m
Gold 1990 Split 400 m
Gold 1990 Split 4 x 400 m
Silver 1994 Helsinki 400 m
Gold 1994 Helsinki 4 x 400 m

Roger Anthony Black MBE (born 31 March 1966) is a former Olympic athlete and now works as a television presenter and motivational speaker.

Born in Portsmouth, England, to David (a doctor) and Thelma, with a twin sister Julia, he attended Portsmouth Grammar School, becoming Head Boy in 1983/4. Roger has a collection of fifteen medals from major senior athletics competitions to add to his two European junior championship gold medals.

He set the national 400 metre record of 44.37 seconds on 3 July 1996 in Lausanne, Switzerland but that was subsequently broken a year later by Iwan Thomas who shaved 0.01s from Roger's time. Fellow GB athlete Mark Richardson also equalled Roger's mark in 1998. Roger's time stands as the second fastest of all time recorded by a British runner. Black was also part of the British 4 x 400 relay team which upset the strong favourites USA to win the gold medal in the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.

His greatest individual achievement in track and field undoubtedly was in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when in the final of the 400m he finished in second place behind Michael Johnson, winning the silver medal in the process. However, partly due to injuries, he never rediscovered this form, and subsequently retired from the sport only two years later in 1998, after winning another silver medal in the 1997 World Championships 4*400 relay.

Roger was coached by Mike Smith and Mike Whittingham and was sponsored by Reebok.

In 1995 Southampton University gave Black an honorary degree and he was also rewarded by Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE.

Despite being born in Portsmouth, Black is a supporter of Southampton FC.

Black has worked regularly for the BBC on programmes such as Tomorrow's World and Grandstand. In 2004 he was one of the celebrities that took part in the pro-am dancing contest Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One. In September 2006, he took part in BBC One's Celebrity Masterchef programme, reaching the final along with Matt Dawson and Hardeep Singh Kohli.

Black has written an autobiography, published by Andre Deutsch, entitled "How Long's the Course?", ISBN 0-233-99644-3

Black has been married twice: formerly to French (Martiniquan) athlete Elsa de Vassoigne, with whom he has a daughter Isabelle (marriage dissolved by divorce), and currently to Julia, with whom he had twins in 2006.

[edit] Achievements

[edit] External links

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