Owen Caddle – IT Support Engineer

What is your role at British Athletics?

I am an IT support engineer.

What does Black History Month mean to you?

Obviously, it gets you thinking about the topic but I think it’s an individual thing and people of all colours should be aware but if it’s not for them, so be it.

All history should be taught as a basic in schools.

What black individual do you most admire in history?

I admire what Martin Luther King did for the rights of black people all across the world, but he has not a patch on my mum!

My black athlete in the history of athletics in Britain is…

Judy Simpson

Judith Earline Veronica Simpson (nee Livermore) was born in Kingston Jamaica on 14 November 1960 and during the mid -80’s to the present day, lives in Sheffield Yorkshire.

She competed in three Commonwealth Games; 1982, 1986 and 1990, winning a silver, gold and bronze respectively in the heptathlon. She also competed in the pentathlon at the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow and in the heptathlon and high jump at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She was also the 3 AAA’s heptathlon champion in 1982 and 1983 and then in 1986 Simpson won a bronze medal in the heptathlon at the European Championships in Stuttgart with a personal best points total of 6623.

Between 1993 and 1996 Judy featured in the UK TV show Gladiators as “Nightshade”.

After appearing in an Ashes competition with Australian Gladiators she became ill. She appeared for a few episodes of the 1996 series but was later forced to pull out.