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

Born in Portsmouth, England, he attended Portsmouth Grammar School where he was a prefect. 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 July 3, 1996 in Lausanne, Switzerland but that was subsequently broken a year later by Iwan Thomas who shaved 0.01s from Roger's time.

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

Roger 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.

Achievements

• 1985
  • European Junior Championships - Cottbus, Germany
    • 400 metres gold medal - 45.36 seconds
    • 4 x 400 m. relay gold medal - 3:07.18
• 1986
  • European Championships - Stuttgart, Germany
    • 400 m. gold medal - 44.59 sec.
    • 4 x 400 m. relay - 2:59.84
  • Commonwealth Games - Edinburgh, Scotland
    • 400 m. gold medal - 45.57 sec.
    • 4 x 400 m. relay gold medal - 3:07.19
• 1987
  • World Championships - Rome, Italy
    • 400 m. silver medal - 44.62 sec.
• 1990
  • European Championships - Split, Yugoslavia
    • 400 m. gold medal - 45.08 sec.
    • 4 x 400 m. relay gold medal - 2:58.22
• 1991
  • World Championships - Tokyo, Japan
    • 400 m. silver medal - 44.62 sec.
    • 4 x 400 m. relay gold medal - 2:57.53
• 1992
  • Summer Olympics - Barcelona, Spain
    • 4 x 400 m. relay - 2:59.73
• 1994
  • European Championships - Helsinki, Finland
    • 400 m. silver medal - 45.2 sec.
    • 4 x 400 m. relay gold medal - 2:59.13
• 1996
  • Summer Olympics - Atlanta, USA
    • 400 m. silver medal - 44.41 sec.
    • 4 x 400 m. relay silver medal - 2:56.60
• 1997
  • World Championships - Athens, Greece
    • 4 x 400 m. relay silver medal - 2:56.65

External link

Roger Black Homepage