British men finally get relay gold medals
Britain's men's 4x400m relay team have finally received their gold medals from the 1997 World Championships having been elevated from silver after the belated disqualification of the US team.
The United States were stripped of the title won in Athens when Antonio Pettigrew confessed in 2008 to doping between 1997 and 2003. The US also lost their 2000 Olympic title.
A laborious process of investigation, appeal and reallocation followed, culminating in Saturday's presentation by World Athletics President Seb Coe to Roger Black, Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson and Mark Hylton (who ran in the heats).
At London's Diamond League meeting on Saturday the former athletes were given a rousing welcome by the 60,000 sellout crowd, who then stood for a very belated national anthem.
"We're proud to be able to give these athletes their moment in front of a home crowd. It's a chance to recognise not just their talent, but the values they stood for. This medal means even more because of how long they've waited for it," said Cherry Alexander, UK Athletics' strategic lead for major events.
Pettigrew was found dead at the age of 42 in 2010 in his locked car in the US, with an autopsy report saying he died by suicide.
Earlier on Saturday, the British government confirmed its support for bids to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, last held in London in 2017 in a regularly sold-out Olympic Stadium.
"Bringing the World Athletics Championships to the UK would be a moment of great national pride, building on our global reputation for hosting memorable sporting events that showcase the very best talent," Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in a statement.
"Hosting these championships would not only unlock opportunities for UK athletes but it would inspire the next generation to get involved and pursue their ambitions."
The United Kingdom will also bid for the 2029 World Para Athletics championships, with a plan to hold events outside London.
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Working together and separately as required, they built on solid foundations to establish Poverty Bay Kayak Club as a force in New Zealand canoeing. They met before the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when New Zealand canoeists competed in the Australian national championships. Alan Thompson was one of three Kiwi canoeists who competed in the Moscow Games (team coach was Gisborne's John Grant ... he and Thompson adapted running coach Arthur Lydiard's training methods to canoeing). Blencowe had been nominated for the Australian team by her sport – Australia competed in the boycott-affected Games under the Olympic flag – but she did not make the Olympic committee's selection. Their paths crossed again in 1982 at international regattas in the lead-up to the world championships. While European athletes went home between regattas, the New Zealanders, Australians and North Americans hung around the venues, because home was too far away. 'We got to know quite a few of them,' she said. 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From featuring in the lifesaving medal tallies primarily as an individual competitor, Liz Thompson partnered up-and-coming athletes in the double ski, winning nationals gold with Jackie Callahan twice and Leigh Webster three times, and silver with Kristen Glover twice. The first double ski win with Webster, in 1995, came early in Thompson's pregnancy with daughter Kim, and the third, in 1998, came when son Quaid was 5 weeks old. At the latter carnival, Thompson was also a member of silver-medal-winning teams in the women's taplin relay and women's six-place. She gained particular satisfaction from coaching Rachel Beale in the lead-up to her victory in the women's under-19 surf ski in the national champs at Ōakura in 2000, and being handler for Webster when she won the women's ironperson race in the nationals at Gisborne's Midway Beach in 2001. And apart from a few years off when her children were small, she's done her bit on beach patrols. Thompson was born in Mackay, North Queensland, on January 10, 1961. The family lived further south, in a town called Sarina, which didn't have a hospital. A brother, David, is three years older. Their father Lou worked for Kraft Foods and was in Queensland 'for something to do with Vegemite'. Mother Pat was a swimming coach and physical education teacher. When Thompson was 2, the family headed back to Melbourne, her parents' hometown. Pat Blencowe used fun and familiarity in her swimming lessons. She let children get familiar with the water by playing in it and when she introduced them to swimming, it was breaststroke first. In her own swim coaching for Waikanae SLSC, Thompson adopted her mother's approach and didn't teach freestyle until her charges had mastered the 'lifesaving breaststroke'. When Quaid was 7, and about to compete in a breaststroke race, Thompson explained the stroke in terms she had used teaching it to him: 'Open-the-curtains arms and squash-mosquito legs'. Quaid duly won the race. As a youngster, Thompson had followed her brother into whitewater kayaking and soon added slalom and sprint versions of the sport. In 1981, she competed in the world championships of all three disciplines but eventually concentrated on sprint races. She had coached in one discipline or another from the late 1980s, but after a break when the children were young, she got back into kayak coaching after daughter Kim and a few friends became interested and helped development coach Agi Szabo. When Szabo left, Thompson stepped up. 'You have to help them to enjoy what they're doing, or they won't keep coming back,' she said. 'From the outset, you want to teach the basics of good technique. 'A big thing is having a peer group. If you get a good group coming through a holiday programme and some stay on and join the club, it's a lot easier if they have mates down there. It's more fun. 'If I'm running a programme for youngsters getting into paddling, I want to see the kids who haven't found their 'thing' yet. A lot of 12-year-olds just love getting out on the river, love the fact that they're quite good at it. You can teach them the rest. 'Every kid who has done a season or two has got something out of it, learnt about themselves, about co-operating as a team, about self-discipline. Even if they don't continue, they have learnt something. It is not wasted effort. You have done something for that kid.' Thompson was inducted into the Surf Life Saving New Zealand Sport Hall of Fame in 2016, along with – among others – Cory Hutchings and sometime Waikanae competitor Anna Ballara. Alan Thompson had been inducted in 1995. In February this year, Liz Thompson was announced as one of four 2024 recipients of the Canoe Racing New Zealand Outstanding Service Award recognising outstanding contribution at club, regional or national level over at least 10 years of service to the sport.
