Du'aine Ladejo: Map

Categories: Old Witleians > Olympic bronze medalists for Great Britain > Olympic silver medalists for Great Britain > Olympic athletes of Great Britain > Athletes at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Wikipedia article:

Map showing all locations mentioned on Wikipedia article:

Du'aine Thorne Ladejo (born 14 February 1971, in Paddington

, London

, England

) is a British

athlete and television personality. In his sports career, he was best known for winning the 400 metres sprint gold medal at the 1994 European Championships. Since retiring from athletics, he has appeared on several television shows including Gladiators (where he is known by his Gladiator alias "Predator").

Athletics career

At the 1994 European Championships, Ladejo won gold medals in both the 400 metres and the 4x400 metres relay. He won the individual sprint in 45.09 seconds, beating his compatriot and defending-champion Roger Black into second place. Ladejo also won the 400 metres gold medal at the European Indoor Championships in both 1994 and 1996. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games, he won a 400 metres silver medal (finishing runner-up to Kenya

's Charles Gitonga) and a 4x400 metres relay gold medal. At the Olympic Games, Ladejo won two medals in the 4x400 metres relay – a silver medal in 1996 and a bronze medal in 1992 (on both occasions he did not run in the final, but earned his medals by running for the team in the preliminary rounds at the Games).

Ladejo attracted considerable publicity in the British media in the run-up to the 1996 Olympic Games following some very public spats with fellow athlete Roger Black. Before the British Olympic trials, Ladejo claimed in a press conference that he would break Black's 400 metre British record, to which Black responded by betting him £1000 that he would not. (Black won the bet after Ladejo failed to break the record.) Ladejo also made comments to the press in the run-up to the Olympics in which he claimed that he was aiming to win the 400 metres gold medal, implying that he intended to beat the world's leading 400 metre runner, the American Michael Johnson. Black responded by saying that this was unrealistic as Johnson's recent times in the event had been significantly faster than those of all his competitors. In the end, Ladejo was eliminated in the quarter-finals at the Olympics, while Black claimed the silver medal behind Johnson.

Following the 1996 Olympics, Ladejo switched his focus to other athletics events, though he never enjoyed as much success as he did in the 400 metres. He tried his hand at the Decathlon, in which he finished seventh at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, and also competed in the 400 metre hurdles.

During his athletics career, Ladejo trained with the Birchfield Harriers.

Media career

For a period during his athletics career, Ladejo also presented a TV show, Du'aine's World, on London Weekend Television.

In the early 2000s, Ladejo competed in the BBC TV sports show Superstars, where he won the competition in 2004 and finished runner-up to Alain Baxter in 2005.

Ladejo also appeared on the ITV reality TV show Celebrity Love Island in 2005.

In 2008, Ladejo joined the Sky One revival of the popular TV show Gladiators, competing under the Gladiator alias "Predator".

Ladejo is the founder of Du'aine's Fit4Schools, an organisation which raises funds to promote health and fitness in schools.