Name: Euan Campbell
Age: 22
Where you grew up: South Queensferry, Scotland and Tervuren, Belgium
Where you live now: Twickenham, London
Job: Event organiser/ running addict
Proudest athletics achievement: Making my first senior team appearance for Scotland
Goals: In an ideal world to make a championships team, right now just to get some racing in.

Where did you come from and how did you end up as one of Craig Winrow's track stars?

I was born in Scotland and left there aged 10 when my family moved to Belgium. I started running when I was young; both my parents encouraged me by entering me in fun runs each year. It wasn’t until I moved to Belgium, though, that I started to notice I was ahead of most people my age at school. When I was 13 I joined a running club and started to train properly for the sport.

When it came to going to University I chose to move to London and go to St Mary’s where I could train under Craig and be a part of hard working, talented and motivated training group. Under Craig in my first year I took 13 seconds off my 1500 time and continued to push myself.

How are you finding London life?

I’m loving London life. From a running perspective there are some great places to be able to run with Richmond and Bushy park on my doorstep, to Hyde Park and Greenwich Park in central London. One of the things I love most is being able to run through a park where it is calm and chilled in the middle of busy fast-moving city. Living in Twickenham it feels away from the hustle and bustle of London but close enough to get involved. Being able to go into central London whenever I want and the freedom to run, go on a night out or just walk around, in a city I’ve been fascinated with since I was kid, is fantastic.

What is your biggest running achievement to date?

It’s difficult to narrow it down in my mind personally as I try not to focus on previous results too much, good or bad. The first time I broke 3:49 for the 1500 always stands out as a moment I will remember fondly. It was probably the closest to a perfect race I’ve ran so far, however whenever I get the chance to race and represent Scotland is a feeling I will never tire of. The first time I got asked to represent at senior level was in my first year with Craig and it just rounded off a successful year in the best way possible and is definitely a high point in my running career so far.

Where did you find inspiration and motivation to keep at it during lockdown?

Honestly, I’ve not found it too hard and saw it as an opportunity to improve for whenever racing returned. There have definitely been times where it has been harder to get up and run or push a bit harder in a session but not any more than I’ve previously experienced.

One of the best bits about my training group and the running community as a whole is always having someone to provide support or hold you to account. For me that came in the form of Alex Brecker or Craig, who would tell me to stop moaning and just get on with it. I think sometimes that is all it takes and you realise that what you think is stopping you or causing a lack of motivation is just in your mind.

Running has also definitely been a great way to remain focused and keeping some normality. My work in events has been put on hold so running has been able to give some focus and help with mental wellbeing.

What are your goals for the future?

At the moment my goals are just to remain healthy and be ready to race when the opportunity arises. My overriding goal is definitely to be able to run as fast as possible. Currently in Scotland we have a very deep standard of middle distance running and I want to be as close to the top and competitive as I can be. The long term goal has got to be to try and make the team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. This would require a jump in performance and perhaps a bit of luck to fall in my favour but it definitely provides the motivation to keep pushing especially now when the sessions seem endless and racing a distant memory.

Arne Dumez interviewed Euan Campbell in early August, a few weeks before Euan ran 8:24 to finish third overall in the Belgrave Endurance Night 3k races.