‘You don’t have to like the people you work with:’ Darren Campbell is relishing restoring harmony within GB relay team after CJ Ujah doping ordeal

Darren Campbell was once part of Cardiff City’s coaching staff. It turned out to be perfect preparation for his current role in the sport where he made his name.

“Working in football has given me an insight into dealing with a lot of different characters who don’t necessarily like each other but have to get on the field as an 11 and work,” says Campbell, who was the Bluebirds’ sprint coach when they won . Promotion to the Premier League in 2013. ‘I learned a lot. It’s about getting everyone to believe in the same dream – and man-management.”

As head of sprints and relays at UK Athletics, Campbell’s man management skills have been tested more than ever in recent weeks. That’s largely down to his decision to select CJ Ujah in the men’s 4x100m squad for last weekend’s World Relays, the athlete whose failed drugs test deprived the British team of the silver medal they won at the Tokyo Olympics had won in 2021.

Also in the eight-man group in the Bahamas were the three sprinters who lost their gongs due to Ujah’s actions: Zharnel Hughes, Nethaanel Mitchell-Blake and Richard Kilty. The latter said two years ago that he would never forgive the ‘sloppy and reckless’ Ujah.

Campbell had to make a lot of effort to create harmony on Paradise Island, where the British team stayed. But as the 50-year-old is keen to point out, he has first-hand experience of such situations. “I experienced it myself with Dwain Chambers,” he reminds Mail Sport.

It was 20 years ago that Chambers tested positive for the banned steroid THG, stripping Campbell of his European and world sprint relay medals. When Chambers returned from his two-year ban, Campbell reluctantly raced him again and won European gold together in 2006.

“In any way you don’t have to like the people you work with, but you have to do the job you’re here to do – and every athlete who has come here has been absolutely professional,” Campbell says.

“We’ve all had conversations to make sure everyone feels comfortable. All we can do is talk to each athlete, listen to their feelings and try to find a happy medium where people can continue with their work.

‘We’re not asking everyone to be best friends, but what we are asking is that they respect each other because everyone has the right to represent Great Britain. There are no rules that say I can’t pick CJ.”

It turned out that Ujah was not active in the Bahamas. Kilty, Hughes, Mitchell-Blake and Eugene Amo-Dadzie qualified the team’s place in Paris by finishing second in their heat on the opening night. Jona Efoloko then replaced Amo-Dadzie in the following day’s final, as they finished fifth in a race won by Noah Lyles’ US.

Reece Prescod, Britain’s second fastest sprinter, was also an unused team member at the World Relay. At last year’s World Championships he was accused of quitting the team after missing training, but later claimed he had an injury.

“My position on Reece has never changed – I just want him to practice,” says Campbell. “But he was incredible in this camp. I would not hesitate to select Reece for any relay.”

Campbell was not actually in Budapest last summer for the Prescod affair. Officially he was on sick leave, but he had also had a disagreement with Stephen Maguire, then UKA technical director. When Maguire surprisingly left the organization last October, Campbell returned to work.

“I just think maybe it was a personality conflict,” says Campbell, speaking for the first time about their aftermath. ‘I felt attacked in different ways. The organization was very supportive of my feelings and I felt valued. I came back to finish what I started.

‘The sport gives me life. I can never be grateful enough to the sport that I am here and happy, especially with what happened in 2018.”

That was the year Campbell almost died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. However, just three years later he was appointed to his current position.

‘When the opportunity arose to go for this job, I didn’t go for it, but it was my wife and eldest son who said: ‘We think you will be good at it and it will help you in your recovery ” . And it certainly helped.”

Not only is Campbell a hugely popular personality, he can also pass on his wisdom about winning a gold medal in the Olympic relay. Last week he had Mark Lewis-Francis – who ran the anchor leg in Athens twenty years ago – deliver a video message to the class of 2024.

“It’s easy for me to talk about, but it would be boring, so it was better if I brought in someone else to be a part of it,” he says. “Mark was 21 at the time and some of these guys are young athletes. It could be their time. If you don’t dream that you can become an Olympic champion, then you won’t do it.’

Despite the media attention on the men’s 4x100m, Campbell also oversees Britain’s other four relay teams: the women’s 4x100m and the men’s, women’s and mixed 4x400m. In the Bahamas, they have all booked their places in Paris, where GB will try to match or better the four relay medals they won in Budapest last summer.

“Last year showed what is possible,” Campbell continues. ‘We are Britain and we want to show that we are great again.’

Price of Paradise

More than 800 athletes from 52 countries came to the Bahamas and were all housed in the sprawling 400-acre Atlantis on Paradise Island.

The luxury resort has its own water park, aquarium, cinema and 18-hole golf course. But it also has 19 bars, a nightclub and the largest casino in the Caribbean.

Think about the poor team coaches who have to make sure athletes stay in their rooms after hours.

Legend Lewis on board

It was interesting to see Carl Lewis working here as an ambassador for World Athletics, given his recent criticism of the organization’s proposal to revamp the long jump.

Lewis, a four-time Olympic long jump champion, branded the idea of ​​testing with a starting zone instead of a starting board as an ‘April Fool’s joke’ on X earlier this year.

The American legend held talks with World Athletics president Lord Coe and CEO Jon Ridgeon over the weekend about the controversial concept.

Meanwhile, World Athletics have announced the latest innovation they will be trying: a new 4x100m relay event, following the success of the mixed 4x400m.

Boost for the sprint series

World Athletics bosses are personally thrilled with how their next Netflix series, Sprint, has turned out after now watching the completed six episodes.

Lyles and his compatriot Sha’Carri Richardson are considered the stars of the show, which will air ahead of the Olympics in July.

Filming for a second series is already underway.

“Best of the Best” hosts will be announced

World Athletics is about to announce the first host city of their new ‘best of the best’ global championships, starting in 2026.

It is held over three evenings, with each session lasting three hours, and only the top 16 athletes from each track event are invited, along with only the top eight in each field discipline.

The world and Olympic champions in the 100 meters competed against each other in Nassau and there was a resounding winner, both on and off the track.

Moody Marcell declines requests

At Friday’s opening press conference, Marcell Jacobs, who shocked the world when he triumphed at Tokyo 2020, looked as if he would rather have been anywhere else, sitting moodily behind sunglasses and a baseball cap and then refusing to meet any additional media requests.

It was like he had something to hide.

In contrast, Noah Lyles, who completed the sprint treble in Budapest, stood on the podium with a smile and then stayed behind in the scorching heat for additional interviews.

So it was gratifying to see Lyles’ American team destroy Jacobs’ Italians to win the men’s 4x100m relay. Athletics is lucky to have Lyles.