It's not often Sneak gets a chance to meet a real-life Olympian, so it was with great excitement that he greeted silver medal winning Roger Black at V3 HQ on Thursday, and even managed to persuade him to give Twitter a go.

Ostensibly here with networking firm Cisco to spread the word ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, which kicks off in just one year's time, Black was soon engrossed in a heated debate about all things technology.

Although BackleyBlack, the business training company he set up with fellow Olympian Steve Backley, has an account on the micro-blogging site, Black told us that he has so far shunned Twitter in a personal capacity.

"It's easy to get absorbed in it, but for every 10 people saying something nice about you there'll be one person saying something negative," he said. "I should use it to keep up to date with things in the Olympic world, though."

Black, who has also put his name to a range of running treadmills, voiced concerns that a personal feed may be abused by disgruntled customers.

However, Sneak suggested that Twitter could actually be an excellent way for Black to build his business and engage in a meaningful way with customers and fans alike.

Medal hoarder Black also shared his love of the iPhone with the V3 team, claiming that it had transformed the way he does business, and he gushed over the new MacBook Air Sneak showed him in the office.

The afternoon was tinged with sadness, however, as Black refused to take on school sports day runner-up and egg-and-spoon specialist Dan Worth in a 400m race round the streets of Soho.

Gunnell and Akabusi - consider the gauntlet officially thrown your way.

28 Jul 2011