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A couple of months ago we were fortunate to attend an event at Colin Appleyards in Keighley where Olympian Darren Campbell was speaking. As huge sport fans we love the opportunity to hear from some of our sporting heroes. It was a great night and we even got to hold his silver and gold Olympic medals!
For Caroline, the relay is one of her favourite athletic disciplines to watch. The drama, the speed, the handover of the baton and the competition all make it a great event for the spectator. We can remember watching Darren Campbell competing on the TV over the years and clearly remember two of the pivotal moments in his career - The time he dropped the baton in the Olympics and the time he and his teammates won gold four years later.
The event itself was held at Colin Appleyard's Nissan dealership in Keighley. Nissan is vehicle sponsor of Team GB and Darren is one of their ambassadors. The evening began with some refreshments before we took our seats to listen to Darren speak.
Darren talked about his life to date including the challenges he found growing up on a council estate in Manchester, some of the life lessons he learnt in the early part of his career and of course how he was able to overcome the immense disappointment he had when he dropped the baton in the Olympic relay final.
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Darren Campbell had an illustrious career winning medals at the World Championships, Commonweath Games and the Olympics. He ran in both the 100m and 200m sprints as well as being part of the men's 4 x 100m relay team. Listening to him speak was very motivational - He related many of the ups and downs in his running career to his life now in running a business and raising a family. Many of the lessons he shared really inspired us to do more and be better.
Darren handed around both his silver medal from the Sydney Olympics which he won in the 200m and also the gold medal he won in the relay in Athens.
After Darren had talked for a little while he was interviewed and asked about various subjects both current and about the past. He had some interesting points on the current drug issues in both athletics and other sports in general, especially now he owns a sports nutrition company and understands what goes into athletes nutrition and the vigorous testing which is undertaken. His key point is the opportunities athletes have to make excuses need to be eliminated - It was very interesting.
He was also asked about the future of athletics which he was positive about and he also shared some stories about how he celebrated after winning his gold medal!
Finally Darren was joined by up and coming local pentathlete Leah Cockcroft and her dad. Leah has already broken records and aged 14 has a dream of going to the Olympics - We certainly wish her the best of luck with achieving her dreams.
The night ended with a raffle and auction which sadly we didn't win but still we had a fantastic evening. We left feeling inspired and motivated by Darren Campbell and were so pleased we got the opportunity to meet him.
