Campbell’s patience is rewarded as Olympic bell tolls

When Luke Campbell looks up at the pictures of Beijing medallists James DeGale, Tony Jefferies and David Price on the walls of the Team GB’s boxing headquarters at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport, he does so not with a sense of what might have been, but of pride.

For although the 24-year-old Hull bantamweight was good enough to box in Beijing, he was never presented with the opportunity to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

Rather than stew as Joe Murray qualified before him into the only spot in his division only to fall at the first hurdle, or as Degale won gold and Jefferies and Price a bronze, Campbell did what he does best, he boxed his heart out to win the European title.

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Three years on and at the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, last month, he reached the final and won a silver, qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics in the process to put to bed any fears that history may repeat itself.

“I’ve been looking up at these faces for the last five years,” he says as he peers up from ringside to the shots of DeGale, Amir Khan, Audley Harrison, Alan Minter and Britain’s wealth of Olympic boxing royalty.

“It’s an inspiration. And now I’ve got my chance. If they can do it, I can do it.

“Even just being an Olympian, especially in London, is a big deal and I’m excited to be a part of the biggest sporting event on the planet.

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“Missing out on Beijing was a shame because I reckon I would have gone to the second qualifier and qualified myself.

“It was disappointing to know I wasn’t going because I had worked so hard towards it. But that’s been and gone now.

“These things happen for a reason. I went to the Europeans straight after the Olympics and won gold, and I beat the Beijing bronze medallist in my second fight.”

Campbell had proven his point, yet it says everything about a mild-mannered young man outside the ring and an aggressive counter-puncher in it, that even to this day he chooses not to rub the selectors noses in it. Instead he continues to knuckle down, with London his ultimate goal. And now he has qualified, he has no intention of going to his home Olympics to make up the numbers.

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“I was saying to myself before I went to the worlds that not only do I really want to qualify for London, I also want to get to a good position, because if I’m thinking about winning an Olympic gold I need to start proving myself now,” he says.

“I did that with the silver medal. It was about making a statement, not necessarily to anyone else, but mainly to myself that I deserve to be up there with the best, beating all the top kids, and that gives me even more confidence to train harder for the Olympics.

“It was a very close final (against Lazaro Alvarez of Cuba), I just started slowly and that cost me gold. It wasn’t nerves. It was my sixth fight of the tournament and I’d had a hard draw, beating the reigning world champion along the way. Everyone I boxed was a seeded fighter. Maybe it was the toll of the fights that took it out of my body. I just started slowly.

“It was my mistake. It’s all a learning curve and I’ll take it all forward in the build-up to the Olympics. Silver was a great achievement and it’s a great feeling to make friends and family proud. Hopefully I can turn it into gold next summer.”

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And he hopes to have as many family and friends at ringside to cheer him on next summer as the ticket allocation permits.

“I’ve worked my whole career to get to the Olympics so it would be nice for my family, or at least a few of them, to go there and share the moment with me,” says Campbell, who walked off the street into a boxing gym in Hull at the age of 13 and never looked back.

“I’ve had to work at it, nothing’s ever come easy for me in boxing.Out of my first 10 fights I only won four. Then I moved gyms to St Paul’s and started progressing.

“Looking back now I often wonder what was in my head to keep me carrying on and trying so hard.

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“Because ever since that first day I started boxing I’ve treated it as a profession; living the life, not cutting corners or cheating, disciplined in everything I did, eating well, not going out late at night, staying away from the girls!

“I was living maybe a bit too intense. I’m probably a bit more relaxed now.”

The intensity will pick up again in the new year when the British squad step up their training ahead of the Olympics, with Campbell one of the favourites to join the wall of fame.

“Hopefully I will,” he says, “and can say to the next kid you’re the same as me, why can’t you do it?”

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That next kid could be 18-year-old Leeds bantamweight Qais Ashfaq, who spars with Campbell and who because of his Pakistani origin, is being compared to Athens silver medallist Amir Khan.

“Luke deserves what he’s getting,” says Ashfaq, the Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist. “He’s been on top for years and I’m delighted for him.

“I can learn from his patience and hopefully 2016 will be my time.”

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