Portal:Hampshire/Selected biography/10

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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.

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