Roger Black finally receives gold medal after 28-year wait for justice
The 4x400m Great Britain relay team of 1997, which also included Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson and Mark Hylton, were belatedly upgraded to gold after the American sprinter Antonio Pettigrew admitted doping, but had never previously received their rightful medals.
That changed at the London Stadium when, to a standing ovation, gold medals were presented by World Athletics president Lord Coe and God Save The King rang out inside the arena that also hosted the 2012 London Olympics. In what has become the world's biggest single day athletics event, Georgia Hunter Bell and Charlie Dobson later followed up with superb British victories in the women's 800m and men's 400m.
Charlie Dobson what a finish 🤯
Powering through to take the men's 400m final in a new personal best of 44.14s 🙌 @BritAthletics #LondonDL pic.twitter.com/4yhdDqbfpd
— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 19, 2025
The ever popular Black, who was also part of the British team that won the 4x400m World Championship gold in 1991, revealed that he is still recovering well following major surgery in February to have a new heart valve and part of his aorta – the main vessel that transports blood from the heart – removed. Black, who turns 60 next year, spent 12 hours under anaesthetic in Southampton General Hospital. 'It was really tough,' he said. 'Now I feel great and much better. I'm not 100 per cent there, but pretty good.'
Pettigrew admitted taking performance enhancing drugs in 2008 at the trial of the coach Trevor Graham, and died by suicide in 2010. 'If there was an option of giving this gold medal to him, 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 Baulch.
Thomas said that it was a 'shame' that it had taken so long for the British team to receive their medals but was happy that it meant his six-year-old son, Teddy, could be present. 'My mum and dad are pretty elderly now – they're up in the box,' he said. 'For them to be able to see the moment I should have had with the boys 28 years ago, in front of a British crowd, felt really special.'
Hunter Bell, who produced one of the fairytale Olympic stories last summer by going from running parkrun months earlier to making the 1500m podium, took her second Diamond League win of the summer over 800m.
With training partner Keely Hodgkinson still yet to race since winning Olympic gold over that same distance, Hunter Bell is emerging as a major threat at the World Championship in September.
'You've obviously got to just look strategically at the events,' said Hunter Bell, who is considering running both the 1500m and 800m.
Hunter Bell, whose winning time of 1min 56.74sec is the second-fastest in the world this year, said that Hodgkinson was 'working her way back' following the hamstring injury that has curtailed her season.
Georgia Hunter Bell takes first in the women's 800m with 1:56:74, her season best! 👏 pic.twitter.com/ltPWYqPJA8
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 19, 2025
On a day when the Government pledged £45 million of public money for a bid to host the World Athletics Championships in 2029, Dobson upset British team-mate Matthew Hudson-Smith to win the 400m in 44.14sec. Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles was also beaten by Oblique Seville in the 100m while Josh Kerr, Britain's Olympic 1500m champion, lost out to the 18-year-old Kenyan sensation Phanuel Koech.
Kerr, though, was bullish about British chances of keeping the world 1500m title following his win in Budapest in 2023 and Jake Wightman's triumph in 2022. 'The title lives here and it will continue to live here for the next year,' he said. Max Burgin also finished third in the 800m, running what was the third fastest ever time by a Briton in 1min 42.35sec.
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The first was Woods, who did it three times in 2000, 2005 and machine-like ability, which is apparent even when he does not seem to be playing at his peak, is similar to his fellow is little wonder several of his peers have described Scheffler this week as being "Tiger-like"."I don't think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon and here's Scottie taking that throne," said 2024 Open champion Xander Schauffele."He's a tough man to beat, and when you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us."For some, the parallels between Scheffler and Woods - who has claimed a joint record 82 PGA Tour victories - might feel has a long way to go to match the longevity of his compatriot, whose major triumphs stretched from 1997 to the comparisons continue to persist because of the way Scheffler imperiously tears through fields like Woods did in his pomp. At Portrush, there was a sense of inevitability about the outcome once Scheffler moved four shots ahead after Saturday's third unerring consistency and ruthless ability to close out victories is what sets him apart from the was the 10th tournament in a row Scheffler had converted an outright 54-hole lead, although he still has a long way to go before matching the 37 consecutive times which Woods did it. "Back in the day that's what separated Tiger," said English former world number one Justin Rose."You get a lot of guys leading tournaments and typically it is hard to close out, but Scottie and Tiger are able to put these tournaments away better than most. "That's how you are judged at the end of the day." Staying emotionless in the heat of battle Scheffler's emotionless expression as he patiently and precisely carved up the Dunluce Links was a far cry from the energy often shown by a final Sunday lacking any sort of jeopardy, one of the most colourful moments came on the sixth green. There was a rare flicker of emotion from Scheffler.A vigorous pump of the fist signalled his pleasure at dropping one of several par-saving putts on his way to who demand high-octane energy from their sporting stars were disappointed. But Scheffler's calm demeanour is exactly why he is so successful."He doesn't care to be a superstar. He's not transcending the game like Tiger did," said Jordan Spieth, who a decade ago was being compared to Woods after winning three majors and finishing runner-up in two others between 2015-17."I think it's more so the difference in personality from any other superstar that you've seen in the modern era and maybe in any sport. "I don't think anybody is like him."While Scheffler's mind is mechanical, his technique is not. His unorthodox footwork looks clumsy at times and is another reason - according to Ireland's Shane Lowry - why many do not consider him in the same breath as Woods. "If Scottie's feet stayed stable and his swing looked like Adam Scott's, we'd be talking about him in the same words as Tiger," said Lowry, who won his solitary major at Royal Portrush in 2019. "I think because it doesn't look so perfect, we don't talk about him like that. "I think he's just incredible to watch, and his bad shots are really good. That's when you know he's really good." Having the inner fire to be the best As soon as Scheffler's long-time coach Randy Smith spotted the youngster at their practice range in Dallas, he knew there was something which set the kid was working with PGA Tour professional Joel Edwards and saw 10-year-old Scheffler, sat crosslegged nearby, absorbing everything he witnessed."He's not comparing himself to other eight-year-olds or other 10-year-olds," Smith, who also coached Justin Leonard to the 1997 Open, wrote for Golf Digest last year., external"He's comparing himself to a player on the Korn Ferry Tour, a PGA Tour winner or to the guy who just won the Open Championship."Scheffler successfully put what he had learned into practice on the US junior circuit, then started cleaning up in the collegiate game as he juggled his golf with a finance degree at the University of inevitable move into the professional ranks came in 2018. But it was not a straightforward had to scrap for his qualifying card to the Korn Ferry Tour, only clinching his playing status in 2019 with a dramatic up-and-down par save - which he later described as the most important scramble of his that point, his career accelerated. In 2020, Scheffler earned the first major top-10 finish of his career at the PGA Championship and his development led to being named the PGA Tour's 'Rookie of the Year'.A year later came the Ryder Cup breakthrough which marked his arrival as an elite force. "What separates Scottie is his fire," Smith added."It's not just competitiveness - though he has more of that than anyone I've ever coached."It's the pure love of practicing and experimenting and learning things on your own. It's determination."At the start of this Open week, many wondered if the fire continued to raised eyebrows by admitting he regularly questions why he is still playing golf and lamented how he has little opportunity to digest his the manner in which he celebrated winning the iconic Claret Jug - roaring towards his loved ones before sobbing on the shoulder of his wife Meredith and hoisting son Bennett into the air - demonstrated his burning desire to win majors had not fanned."When I wake up in the morning, I try and put max effort in each day I get to go out and practise," he said."When I'm working out, when I'm doing the cold tub, doing recovery, I feel like I'm just called to do it to the best of my ability. "It's just mostly about putting in the proper work and coming out here and competing." Improving weaknesses in his game Even after he had climbed to the top of the world rankings, there were some doubts about Scheffler's statistics proved he was the best from tee to green. They also proved he was among the worst with the putter.A call was made to English putting guru Phil Kenyon - whose client list is a who's who of major champions - in a bid to improve with the was particularly paid to Scheffler's reading of the greens and increasing the stability of his to a claw grip - where the right hand acts as a pincer lower down the shaft - has transformed Scheffler into one of the most reliable putters in the tweak helped him become the first player to defend the PGA Tour's Players Championship, win a second Masters, Olympic gold and five other titles in a stellar 2024 that also had echoed the putting statistics after three rounds at Portrush, having holed 97% of his putts inside five feet and 90% of those within 10 feet, put him in command. He holed putts of 14, 15 and 16 feet on Sunday."[The grip] was something we tested out last year and felt comfortable from the start," Scheffler said."I use it as we get closer to the hole, lag putting. Outside of 15 to 20 feet, I'm still putting conventional."It was something we felt could help us improve, and so far it has."While improved putting has taken Scheffler to Woods-esque heights, will it help him move closer to replicating Woods' achievements over the longer term? That remains to be seen.
