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Dave Campbell of Victoria, BC by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was an international level middle-distance athlete during the 1980s and 1990s. He competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, as well as the1986 and 1990 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland and Auckland, New Zealand, respectively. He won a bronze medal in Edinburgh in the 1500m distance. Campbell also won the Vancouver Sun Run in 1990 setting his 10 kilometre best time of 28:54.
Campbell began running seriously in high school for the Mount Doug Rams in Victoria and followed that up by competing in the CIAU (CIS) at the University of Victoria. He also won the 1500m national title three consecutive years.
Personal bests:
800m - 1:48.3
1500m - 3:38.2
5000m - 13:42
10k - 28:54
Half-marathon - 64 min (approx.).
Christopher Kelsall: Were you an active child? Did you play a lot of sports growing up?
Dave Campbell: I was very active as a child, played soccer for eight years back in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My whole family had a sports background so it came natural to me since I was introduced to lots of different sports growing up.
CK: At what age did you discover that running was your sport and decided to fully commit to it?
DC: I basically was introduced to running at a very young age of 10 I think, when I was living in Halifax. I moved out to Victoria at age 13 and didn’t really get back to running until my last year of high school. I was always approached by my PE teachers from junior high on because I finished first on all my runs in PE class. It wasn’t until grade 12 that my then first coach Stan Gill approached me to come out and train for cross-country and track. The rest as you say was history.
CK: So did you compete for the Mt. Doug Rams, followed by the University of Victoria Vikes?
DC: Yes I did, my first coach and one of the main reasons I ended up running was coach Stan Gill, a great high school coach. I then went onto the Victoria Mercuries for a year or two and was coached by George Dean and then I went to UVic.
CK: Did you have instant success in grade 12?
DC: As per most HS seasons, it starts with cross-country. During that season I was perennially a fourth place dude, basically just building a base of training as a new runner per say. During track season I ended up second at BC HS in the 1500m so not bad and I ended up breaking the four minute 1500m barrier as well. Not bad for year one, it gave me an idea that I actually may be good at this sport, ha-ha!!
Read the full interview here. Dave talks about pranks and nasty race tactics.