A member of Great Britain’s men’s 4x400m relay squad from the 1997 World Athletics Championships says receiving their gold medals 28 years after the race was a “really special” moment.
Roger Black finally received his gold medal alongside team-mates Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson and Mark Hylton on Saturday at London’s Diamond League meeting, in front of a sold-out 60,000-capacity.
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The 1997 Athens race had been won by the American team, who were later stripped of their golds due to an anti-doping violation by team member Antonio Pettigrew.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Black said not winning the race “definitely affected” the team but being able to celebrate almost three decades later was “more special” as they were able to share the moment with their families and children, many of whom had not been born in 1997.
The U.S. 4x400m relay team of Jerome Young, Anthony Pettigrew, Chris Jones and Allen Johnson (l-r) after the Athens ’97 World Athletics Championships final (Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images)
“Also, more importantly, we shared it with 60,000 British fans in there and a lot of them supported us back in the day,” added Black, who also won gold with the British team in Tokyo in the 4x400m at the World Championships in 1991. “I think pulling that together, it was actually a surprisingly emotional moment and we loved it. It was really special.”
The moment was poignant for Black, who underwent successful live-saving surgery earlier this year to replace his aortic valve and repair his aortic root, the main vessel that transports blood from the heart.
The results of the 1997 race were changed in 2008, when U.S. runner Pettigrew admitted to doping between 1997 and 2003. In 2010, the former sprinter was found dead at the age of 42 in his locked car with an autopsy saying he died by suicide after an overdose.
“If there was an option of giving this gold medal to him (Pettigrew), I’d rather him have the gold medal than him taking his life — his life is far more important to me than me having this gold medal,” said Great Britain’s Baulch, per the Telegraph.
Saturday also saw the UK government confirm it will “provide significant funding” and be “backing a bid” to host the 2029 World Athletics and Para Athletics Championships.
(Top image: Mark Richardson, Jamie Baulch, Roger Black, Iwan Thomas and Mark Hylton (l-r) receive their gold medals: Julian Finney/Getty Images)