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"Sex on legs" soon to be just the "ex"

They used to call him "sex on legs" -- but come Sunday, he will just be the ex.

Roger Black, pinup boy of English athletics, Olympic 400 metre silver medallist behind Michael Johnson, and captain of the English athletic team, retires after a final appearance at Sheffield, in the British Grand Prix, on Sunday.

The reason, he says, are selection policies. Black was overlooked for the individual 400m at the upcoming European Championships in Budapest, after finishing fourth in the recent team trials.

The hurt apparently was all the deeper because despite his extraordinary performances over 13 years, he found himself losing even the third, discretionary spot on the team to an unknown athlete. Solomon Wariso, who shaded Black by just .03 seconds in the trials, then went on to say that he was not all that keen on the 400m, preferring the 200m sprint.

Black promptly informed the selectors that he would not run for the national 400m relay team, nor would he lead the British team in Budapest. Black, incidentally, has thrice lead the British relay team to wins in the event.

A completely disheartened Black has subsequently turned down invitations to race at invitational meets in Monaco, Zurich and Lausanne, arguing that he did not have the heart to hang around "just to make money".

The decision to quit, thus, is complete, and final. Black, in fact, said that after Sunday, he would stop training altogether.

The 31 year old athlete, who got the first of his 30 English caps within three months of taking to serious athletics, holds the UK 400m record, besides the European and Commonwealth 4x400m record.

Despite serious stress fracture that caused him to miss the 1988 Olympics (Black needed a screw inserted into his foot, and was on crutches for six months after the operation), he stormed back to take golds in the European Championships of 1990 in the 400 and the relay. This was followed by a silver in the individual race, and a brilliant relay win over the strong US side, in the 1991 World Championships.

Then came more injuries, and surgery on a badly aligned hip, just ahead of the 1992 Olympics where Black was eliminated in the 400m semifinal, and could only anchor the relay squad to a bronze. A year later, he was back on his back, this time with a virus illness that knocked him out.

In true champion-fashion, Black stormed back to an individual silver, and a relay gold, in the European Championships of 1994, and in 1996, at Atlanta, added two more silvers, one individual and the other for the relay -- a commendable performance given the presence of Michael Johnson in the US squad.

His last big win was in 1997, when he anchored the national relay squad to a silver in the relay.