Darren Campbell

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Darren Campbell (born September 12, 1973) is an English sprint athlete.

Born in Manchester, England, Darren made a very bright start to his athletics career winning the 100m and 200m gold medals at the 1991 European Junior Championships held in Thessaloniki, Greece and following this up with silver medals in the same events a year later at the 1992 World Junior Championships, beating Ato Boldon both times. But cursed with injury he took time off from athletics to play football for Plymouth Argyle F.C., Cwmbran Town, Inter Cardiff, and Newport County A.F.C. amongst others.

After returning to the track in 1995 he was sufficiently recovered enough to represent Britain in the Summer Olympic Games the following year and with a few hiccups along the way has made himself into a regular in the national team.

In 1998 saw Darren win the 100 m. at the European Championships, and win gold in the  x 100 m. relay. But at the Commonwealth Games that year he could only win the  x 100 m. relay.

1999 saw Darren win a sliver medal in the  x 100 m at the World championships in Sevillie however in his individual event he was elimated in the semi-finals.

The 2000 Olympic Games saw him take a silver medal in the 200 m. The gold in that event was won by Kenteris of Greece, whose credibility came to be questioned after he absconded with teammate Ekaterina Thanou in the run up to the 2004 Olympics in order to avoid a drugs test. Some wondered if Campbell might now be given the 200m title from 2000 but Kenteris has not been disqualified.

In 2001 Darren was again hit by injury, which made him miss the majority of the year's competitions.

2002 saw Darren compete in his home town at the Commonwealth Games. He could only manage bronze in his individual event the 200 m. but brought home the gold in the 4 x 100 m. relay along with squad members Jason Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Allyn Condon.

In 2003 Darren went to the Paris World Championships where he took bronze again in the 100 m. and bettered this in the relay, taking silver.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Campbell was suffering from a hamstring injury and exited in the early rounds of both the 100 m and 200 m. However, along with Gardener, Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis, he won a stunning gold medal in the 4 x 100 m. relay, where the quartet defeated the United States team by just 0.01 seconds, in a season's best of 38.07.

Achievements

As well as these performances, during his career Darren has also won seven national titles at either the 100 or 200 metres.