Neil Black dies suddenly

The world of athletics is shocked and saddened to confirm the loss of Neil Black, a dear friend to many in the athletics community who passed suddenly at the weekend. Athletes, colleagues and friends of Neil, who himself had been a superb athlete before a career as a top class physiotherpist and then Performance Director at British Athletics, have been paying tributes.

Neil loved the sport of athletics and dedicated his life to supporting athletes - as a world class physiotherapist, as head of sport science, and then in recent years as Performance Director for British Athletics.

Since leaving the role of UKA Performance Director in October 2019, he had been continuing to support a number of athletes and coaches. 

Black remained very popular with UK Athletics staff who voted him the 2019 employee of the year in December, after leaving the organisation two months earlier.

Neil will be hugely missed by those that knew and worked with him.

Tributes are flooding in from numerous Olympic champions who were mentored and nurtured by Neil who ran a best of 3:44 over 1500m as a junior. 

Further Comment from Neil Black’s family:

"We would like to thank people for the wonderful and heartfelt messages we have received. So many people have been in touch, it is clear to us how loved Neil was and this is bringing us some comfort at this time."