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Friday 05.06.2015 to Sunday 07.06.2015 | Dubbo Weekender
Holly and Paige Campbell Sisters Holly and Paige Campbell grew up running around the family farm together. These days, the 18 year old twins are running rings around the competition, with the Olympic rings now in their sights. AS TOLD TO Natalie Holmes PHOTOGRAPHY Kaitlyn Rennie Paige Campbell: E grew up on a farm 70km west of Warren (at Carinda) and were schooled at home through the Dubbo School of Distance Education until we went to high school. We didn’t know if we were any good at running – we only went to one athletics carnival a year. We always got to state (level) and it was exciting to run on the synthetic track at Homebush. We were always active and did swimming and soccer mostly, but no real training. We were competing with each other – we are both really competitive! We went to boarding school at Ascham in Sydney for our secondary schooling. There was a sports coach there who really encouraged us with training. We still played soccer and touch and other sports, but really became more competitive then. We were about 12 or 13 when we started running cross-country at school. Being away at school helped because we had access to the gym and more into running. We were still playing touch, soccer, hockey and riding horses. When we started Year 9, we started training every day and taking it more seriously. My goals are progressive but the Olympics, that’s always been there since the beginning. I just work on smaller goals and hope to win medals. It was only from Year 11 onwards that cross country and athletics has become a main focus. It motivates me to get better all the time and competing makes me happy. During the HSC last year, I looked forward to getting out doing exercise when I wasn’t studying. It takes you away from what you are doing. We decided to take a gap year and focus on running. We are still riding our horses too. The new track (at Barden Park) here is excellent; really great. My greatest achievement so far was winning a silver medal at the open nationals in Brisbane in the 3km steeplechase. It way exceeded my expectations and I beat my personal best. I was looking for a place but was thrilled with what I achieved. The steeplechase is a more open event
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– it’s less popular because of what’s required, I guess. But I enjoy it; it’s a challenge. I also compete in the 400m hurdles. If there’s another athlete I admire, it would be Cathy Freeman – she has achieved a lot. There aren’t many Aussies in the long distance events though, they’re more Kenyan-dominated events. Since we’ve moved to Dubbo, we’ve been running on the track every day and spend an hour there every morning then go to work and work the horses and go to the gym in the afternoon. I’ve improved a lot this year just by focusing on running and not having the pressures of school and being able to constantly train. I’m working towards the state crosscountry in Sydney in June and hopefully getting to nationals in Melbourne. Over summer, I won three silver and one gold at the Country Championships in Newcastle and set a record in the NSW Country steeplechase. I also came fourth at the Australian Athletics Junior Championships in the 3km steeplechase. Next year, I plan to study Economics and Arts at Sydney Uni and hopefully keep going with athletics; Sydney Uni has a strong athletics team. Hopefully, then the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 or the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. I missed out on the Oceania Championships team which was disappointing but it makes me more determined to get there next time. Holly is very determined and spurs me on. She’s a huge motivator and not lazy at all. If I see her on the (winner’s) podium, it makes me think I have to get up there too. I feel like it’s easier because we have the support of each other. At the moment, we’re both heading in the same direction. Living together, working together, training together – we don’t really know any different.
Holly Campbell: IVING on the farm, we’ve always been really active and always outside. We used to try to evade Mum
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and run away from her so that we didn’t have to do school work. It’s a 14,000 acre farm so there was plenty of space to run around in! We have two sisters; the older one hates running and isn’t into sports like us. The younger one is very talented but doesn’t have the discipline, although she gives it a go. She just cruises along. Mum and Dad never really pressured us to do anything – they always said do your best. I have always looked up to Paige – she was also faster than me when we were younger. We were really into running when we were in primary school, everyone did it. I suppose that I was good but not as good as Paige. But one time, I went away to a PSSA (Primary School Sports Association) carnival because Paige broke her leg. I ran as her and no-one knew! We always looked exactly the same anyway so no-one could tell. I had missed out on making it, so it was decided that someone may as well run. At those big events, it was quite daunting because some of them trained every day and had all the crop tops, underwear and spikes. We had Lynx joggers and oversized singlets (laughs). As far as country and city, I think it’s definitely more difficult for country athletes to go further. They have a lot of extra pressures such as distance and travel and accommodation costs. When I was younger, I would just go out and run 2km sporadically. By about the time I was in Year 9 or 10, I was doing so much that I was starting to get injured, so our coach advised to wind back a bit. I chose running over other sports because I just love it. I never had goals – just used to see how it would go and did it for fun. I’m a middle distance runner; my favourite events are 800m and 1500m, especially the 1500. I lack speed but have pretty good endurance. It’s completely different than other events, you spend a lot more time running with just your thoughts sometimes. I look forward to competing – it makes me run better because it’s more competitive. Next year, I am going to study
a Bachelor of Pharmacy at Sydney Uni and hope to keep running. Being in Dubbo, the new track is an asset to the area, it really helps everyone. Athletes here are lucky too that there are some fantastic coaches in Dubbo. It’s exciting to see Dubbo getting so many more running events; it’s good to get everyone out and moving. When we were in Year 12, Paige and I had a little fan club at school – they were in Year 7. Athletics is a sport where a lot of people drop out when they get to their teen years and often it’s only the dedicated ones left. Being a good role model was important and we showed them they could keep doing it until that age if they wanted to. Our school coach Meagan Mannix runs her own business now. We owe a lot to her. She took a lot of her own time to help us. I don’t actually think it’s possible to do well without a good coach. It’s important to try to be the best in my event – I like being one of the best. It’s a good feeling to know that you can be one of the best and to compete against the best from other countries. I represented Australia at the Oceania Championships in Cairns in May – my first time running for Australia and there were 22 other countries there. It was really fun and I enjoyed the experience and did my PB in the 1500m of 4.29 minutes as well as winning silver in both my events. Having Paige around means I have someone to talk to, make jokes with. It’s reassuring to have someone with you. It can be overwhelming and hard to get out on the track, especially if it’s cold. It’s good for Paige to be there for me and being there for her too. I’m driven by the fact that she might beat me and at the same time, I still look up to her – she’s really driven. I watch her run and she is always backing herself to do well. That’s really important in my opinion. She works really hard too. » Holly and Paige are also both recipients of the Australian Olympic Committee’s prestigious Pierre De Coubertin Award which celebrates sportsmanship and Olympic values.