Name: Luke Campbell
Event: Boxing
Date of Birth: 27/09/87 (age 25)
Career Highlight: Gold medal in the 2008 European Amateur Championships
Did you know? Campbell’s gold medal in the 2008 European Amateur Championships was the first by a British boxer since 1961, ending a 47 year drought.
Luke Campbell is a bantamweight and is widely regarded as Great Britain’s greatest hope for a men’s boxing medal in London this summer.
Britain’s boxers have enjoyed much success in recent Olympics, with Amir Khan taking the silver medal in 2004 and James DeGale winning gold in Beijing in 2008. Despite Britain’s success in Olympic boxing however, it is two Americans, Muhammad Ali and Roy Jones jr., that Campbell marks as the figures who have inspired him.
Campbell was first selected to box for England as a 15 year old and narrowly missed out on an Olympic spot in 2008 before beating Bulgarian Detelin Dalakliev in the final of the European Amateur Championships later that year to record his biggest success to date.
Campbell continued his success with a bronze medal in the EU Amateur Championships in 2009 and the gold in the Four Nations Challenge in 2010 before claiming silver in the Wold Amateur Championships in Baku last year. Campbell was narrowly beaten by Cuban Lazaro Alvarez in the final, by a margin of 14 points to 10.
The man from Hull will hope to go one better in London this summer as he fights in front of his home crowd. He will face stiff competition from the likes of Yankiel Leon, silver medallist in Beijing, and the man he beat in the 2008 European final, Dalakliev, as well as Irishman John Joe Nevin who won bronze at the World Championships in 2008. However, Campbell will be confident he can claim the top prize to justify the hype surrounding him as we build up to the games.