MARVIN CAMPBELL

In his own words

In my opinion until about the age of 11 I wasn’t any good. I hated conditioning, would forget my floor exercise, range and conditioning and P-Bars routines regularly. Colin would also tell me on many occasion I’d stop suddenly, go completely vacant in my gaze, then turn to a judge or teammate and ask ‘What move is next, I’ve forgotten my routine?’. Even at the NDP’s at Lilleshall competing for the NW Region aged about 11 I would score 8.4 – 8.6 for a top flight routine only for a judge to come over to the bench and say ‘you know you didn’t do a bridge, or you seem to have forgotten your chest roll press’. So instead of being judged out of 10 it was judged out of 9.

My Achievements:
During my competitive time I won club, regional, English and British Championships in 1993 and then the British again in 1995. I also won Silver and Bronze placings in these championships on individual apparatus.

I also came 2nd at the Thames Television Junior Gymnast of The Year at Wembley in 1988 I think it was. For me the big deal about that competition was the FREE hotel and the goodie bag.

I think my primary talent wasn’t my gymnastics ability, technique, or conditioning, it was more that I hated losing, so I trained hard so as not be in my mind a ‘Loser’.

Colin Leigh was always the Head Coach at CMIG but coaches who I would also give credit to for coaching me at North Manchester in the early days were Mr Ray Blakeborough, Mr John Edwards, Mr Campion, Mr Innes. These are the names I remember and groups I remember being in.

Colin Leigh moved the club to the old Gorton Baths in Gorton / Belle Vue in Manchester in 1984 so then establishing a permanently set up gym with foam pits.

Throughout my time competing in gymnastics I sustained several major injuries:

• 2 Ruptured Achilles Tendons (both snapped in the warm up period of competitions
• Torn knee cartilage
• Dislocated Collar-Bone
• Cracked Vertebrae in my neck from landing on my head in the foam-pit

Marvin with the 1991 World Championships team following their qualification for the 1992 Olympics

The only major competition I didn’t compete in was the Commonwealth Games in 1994 even though prior to that event I was the current North West, English and Senior Men’s British Champion. I still to this day put that down to me moving training clubs from Central Manchester Institute of Gymnastics with Colin Leigh to Liverpool School of Physical Education with Vitali Lomtiev (R.I.P.) and Gary Kirby.

Colin and I came head to head over many years as I grew up and in 1993 I decided to either quit gymnastics completely or try another club. Trying another club didn’t sit well with Colin and I feel he used his position as English Gymnastics Head Coach and one bad performance from me to block me being part of that 1994 team. That’s all in the past now and life moves on. I think everyone would agree I was never an angel either in training or competition but that was and still to this day is my character which isn’t such a bad thing.