A heartbroken Sir Mo Farah has led the tributes to Neil Black, the former UK Athletics performance director who has died suddenly at the age of 60, calling him a “great man” who helped shape him into an Olympic champion. Black, who is believed to have died of natural causes at his flat in Quorn near Loughborough on Monday, was a longstanding personal physiotherapist and confidant to Farah, who he had known for more than two decades. He was also there for all of Farah’s major victories – including his four Olympic gold medals and six world titles. Famously, after Farah won 10,000m gold at the 2013 Moscow world championships, Black gave him a rub down in the Luzhniki stadium car park after officials barred Farah’s family from seeing him. “I have lost a good friend,” said Farah on Twitter. “Known him since I was 14 years old … Neil supported me all the way in my career since I was kid. My heart is broken. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Neil Black.. no one knew me like he did..!! We lost a great man.” As a young athlete Black beat Sebastian Coe in a cross-country race as well as Steve Cram, and was widely regarded as a brilliant physiotherapist. After moving up the ranks he assumed the role of performance director after the London 2012 Olympics, but was frequently criticised for his focus on medals – and Farah – at the expense of building a stronger coaching infrastructure for elite athletes. Black had hoped to continue in the role until after the Tokyo Olympics but last year he paid the price for his unwavering support of the controversial US coach Alberto Salazar – who was banned pending an appeal for four years for doping offences in October – as well as Britain’s low tally of just five medals at the world championships in Doha, their worst result since 2005. Since leaving the role of UKA’s performance director, Black had been continuing to support a number of athletes and coaches as an adviser. Black was regarded by those who knew him as personable and intensely loyal, perhaps sometimes to his detriment. Before Salazar’s ban Black had described the American as a genius, adding that there was “total trust, total belief, total respect” between the American and British athletics. He also gave his full backing to Salazar after a BBC Panorama documentary in June 2015 suggested that he had violated anti-doping laws, including using testosterone on his sons to quantify the amount that would flag a positive test. And in 2017, after a damning US Anti-Doping Agency report was leaked, Black said he knew he could trust Salazar and Farah because he had looked them in the eye. However Black remained very popular with UK Athletics staff who voted him the 2019 employee of the year in December, even though he had left the organisation two months earlier. Several other athletes expressed shock at Black’s death including the world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, who called the news “incredibly sad and shocking”. She added: “I really can’t believe it. He was a genuinely lovely, caring and kind-hearted man whose sense of humour and positivity would light up a room. Rest in peace Neil, you’ll be dearly missed by all.” Hannah England, the 2011 world 1500m silver medallist, said that without Black’s skills she never would have competed in an Olympics. “In 2012 I became an Olympian, a monumental moment and part of my life. This was genuinely only possibly because of the dedication from my physio at the time Neil Black.” The former UKA chairman Ed Warner, meanwhile, called Black’s death “an immense loss to British high-performance sport and to athletics in particular”. He added:“Neil bore the barbs of the critics that are an inevitable part of the job of any leader in elite-performance sport with a grace and sense of humour that were truly a mark of the man. “I am certain there are British athletes who will win medals in Olympics and championships to come who will look back with enormous gratitude at the role Neil played in preparing them for their success.” The news was confirmed in a statement from UK Athletics on Tuesday, which said it was “shocked and saddened to confirm the loss of our friend and former colleague Neil Black who passed away suddenly at the weekend. “Neil will be hugely missed by those that knew and worked with him. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.”