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Olympic canoeist ‘Campbell Walsh’ wins the final Tri-Adventure Sprint of the 2012 season

 

Tri-Adventure were delighted to have Campbell Walsh in attendance as a regular at the 2012 Sprint series, finishing the year on a high -winning the last Sprint of the season!.  Campbell who has an impressive track record in the canoe slalom area (World Cup Champion, European Champion, twice a World Championship bronze medalist and an Olympic silver medalist) shows that the transition from other outdoor sports to the adventure racing circuit is a logical, fun and addictive move…

Campbell tells us about his adventure racing experiences and assures us he’ll be back for more in 2013 below..

You won our last event (well done!), tell us about your 2012 season and how you worked up to this win?

As a full-time canoe slalom athlete, 2012 was all about focusing on the London Olympic Games. Unfortunately things didn’t turn out as I would have preferred, when I failed to qualify for Team GB (I was 2nd at the GB trials, and it is only 1-spot per nation at the Olympics in my event) It was a shame, as I was actually in great shape following a good block of winter training, but I didn’t get it together on that one weekend of trials racing.

I still represented GB at all the other major international canoe slalom events of the summer – European Champs and 5 x World Cup events (where 3 entries per nation are allowed). I then made the decision to retire from the sport following a long and successful paddling career of 13 years on the GB team.

Whilst deciding what my future career might be, I now have time to pursue some of the other sports I enjoy, particularly mountain biking, orienteering and other navigation based events. Adventure racing ticks the box perfectly. I got out on my bike more and I entered a lot of running based events in the autumn – orienteering events, a fell race, the OMM.  Plus, of course, all 3 of the Tri-Adventure events. As my experience in the strategy and navigation built up, and I got more miles in my legs, I think I got faster. Ending with a win in the final Tri-Adventure event.

What do you like about Tri-Adventure events?

I enjoy all sorts of bike/run navigation events. It’s the strategy and route choice element that makes them most appealing to me – a combination of a physical and mental test. The Tri-Adventure races personally suit me well because at 2hours they are quite short compared to other events on the calendar. Coming from having spent all my life training for a 90-100 second, upper body biased, canoe slalom races, effectively using my legs for even 2 hours is a challenge for me. I also like the nice friendly atmosphere and slick organisation – I wouldn’t keep coming back otherwise!

We’re running a 4hr Experience race next year, would you give this a go?

Definitely. I recently did the 5 hour Open5 race on the South Downs, and managed to get through that ok!

Would you encourage others to get involved in AR?

Absolutely. I’m always trying to spread the word and encourage people to enter.

If like Campbell you want to experience the thrill of adventure racing with Tri-Adventure visit www.triadventure.co.uk where you’ll find lots of advice and tips for newcomers to the sport along with event calendars, our fantastic adventure racing Academy sure to offer something to suit everyone.

Visit www.triadventure.co.uk today for more information!

Find us on Facebook/Triadventure & Twitter/@Tri_adventure

Next events 17 February and 17 March

 

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