Quartet to be awarded Gold medals from 1997 World Championships. 12 Jan 2010

Jamie Baulch, Iwan Thomas, Roger Black and Mark Richardson are hoping to receive their Gold medals from the 1997 World Championships, after the revised result was confirmed by the World Governing Body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The quartet took Silver on the day, having been beaten to Gold by the United States. However, 10 years later, the American team were disqualified after a drugs scandal where quartet Antonio Pettigrew admitted to taking drugs at the time.

The IAAF declared that the GB team were the rightful winners of the gold medal and the official record books were modified. However, two years on the team has still not yet received its medals.

Jamie Baulch said: “There was a lot of hype at the time that the Great Britain team were world champions but since then nothing has happened.

“There is a big difference between being the best in the world and being second. I do feel that I have missed out even though I have done well in my career.

“I’m a family man and I know my children and my family are proud of me but that gold medal means a lot to me. It got to the point that we need to do something about it. I set up a Facebook petition group about it at the end of December and I’ve had lots of responses encouraging us. I even get people stopping me in the street asking when I’m getting my gold medal.

“I’m very patriotic, Iwan and I are both Welsh so this is a coup for Wales too. If we had come home as world champions then that would have been massive. We were in that great era of athletics and that would have made it even greater for the youngsters who are today’s athletes.”

Iwan Thomas, 36, said: “You strive throughout your career to be the best you can be. If you won the gold then you deserve to actually have the medal and know that you were the best. It’s a shame we didn’t get the kudos back in 1997 having won it then but it is still fantastic to get it years later.”