Britain’s Jeff Battista gets 4 Lahti gold medals forfeited by Barnwell
Tom Phillips, our fast fotog friend, shares this touching story from last weekend’s British masters nationals: “There was . . . high emotion in Cardiff when British masters president, Olympic hammer thrower Paul Dickenson, presented four Lahti gold medals to M50 sprinter Jeff Battista. These were, of course, the four medals he was deprived by Val Barnwell — 100m, 200m and both (M50) track relays. Jeff had said that, given the circumstances, he had felt the medals would be a rather hollow victory. But when he actually received them, in front of all of the athletes and spectators at the British championships –- and received all four in one presentation — it all seemed far more real! Golds were also awarded to the other relay team members, Ian Broadhurst, Brian Matthews and Eric Smart.â€
Jeff (with Paul) proudly displays Lahti golds. (Photo by Tom Phillips)
Here’s the 4×400 at Lahti worlds. Val Barnwell led off for Team USA, handing off to James Chinn, who ran his second leg against Britain’s Jeff Battista:
4 Responses
It was fantastic to watch the 4×400 video, as it brought back great memories. The American team shows the class of the athletes and their original winning margin. Such a shame that the other team members suffered the consequences and their superb efforts were in vain.
Jeff and teammates:
Speaking for many US athletes who were at the Worlds in Lahti and witnessed all of your performances, I will say that you and your mates fully deserve your medals. Competitors who are not clean from performance enhancing substances do terrible dishonor to the sport we love: they may care deeply about their own performance, but they do not truly love the sport itself.
Congratulations! I hope to see you all at Sacramento in 2012: you will be shown the respect and honor that is due to World Champions!
Congradulations to whoever decided to make a real presentation here, it is good to finally something positive out of this mess.
Yes Tony. Congratulations to all involved. Quite a laugh from my vantage point.
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