From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things
Olympic Runner Iwan Thomas who won a silver medal at the Atlanta Olymics, turns 40 today.
Iwan Gwyn Thomas MBE (born 5 January 1974 in Farnborough, London Borough of Bromley) is a sprinter who represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Olympic Games in the 400 m, and Wales at the Commonwealth Games. Thomas is the current UK record holder at 400 m with a time of 44.36 seconds and is a former European and Commonwealth games champion. He is also the current holder of the Commonwealth Games record in the 400 m.
His initial athletics breakthrough came at the World Junior Championships in 1992 as part of the British 4x400 m relay team that finished fifth. Thomas attended Stamford School and West London Institute of Higher Education, where he studied Sports Science and Geography. While still at university, he took part in the 1994 Commonwealth Games 400 m where he reached the semi-finals, representing Wales. From there, he was selected to represent Britain in the relay at the 1995 European Athletics Cup and secured his first championship gold medal.
Thomas's coach for much of his running career was Mike Smith, formerly coach to British 400 m runners Roger Black, Todd Bennett and Paul Harmsworth also hurdler Kris Akabusi. Thomas was made an MBE in 1998.
At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Thomas finished 5th in the final and took a silver medal in the 4x400 m event. He also represented Britain in the 2000 Olympics but was not selected for the individual event and despite running the fastest leg for the British team, did not secure a medal.
Thomas was a member of the Great Britain 4x400m team at the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens. The team (Iwan Thomas, Roger Black, Jamie Baulch and Mark Richardson) finished second by 0.18 seconds to the United States. However, in 2008, US team member Antonio Pettigrew, who ran the second leg of the final, testified in the court case against trainer Trevor Graham that he had been aided by performance- enhancing substances between 1997 and 2001, including the 1997 World Championships. As the International Amateur Athletics Federation did not, as of 2008, change results retrospectively more than eight years after the event, the GB team was not awarded the gold medal retrospectively, although Pettigrew has returned his medals won in that period.
On 7 January 2010 it was announced that Great Britain's 1997 World Championship 4x400m relay team were to be awarded the gold medal they were denied by the disqualified USA team.[ New medals were minted for the ceremony, as not all of the American quartet returned the originals. Thomas received his gold medal in May 2010 in a presentation by Alun Ffred Jones at Cardiff Bay.
Thomas' career was hampered by injury including a stress fracture to his ankle in 1999 that required telescopic surgery. He was again injured in 2003 with damage to his Achilles. Further injury in 2004 ruled him out of the 2004 Olympic Games. Thomas was selected in 2006 for the Welsh team for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, but was unable to compete due to an injury.
Iwan never officially retired from athletics but took the opportunity to do so when offered by Andy Goldstein on 3 July 2012 edition of the Andy Goldstien's Sports Bar on TalkSPORT.
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