Country Campbell to make Australian debut at the cross country

Published Mon 13 Feb 2023

13 February 2023

Country Campbell to make Australian debut at the cross country

At age 26, Holly Campbell, the newly crowned NSW 5000m champion, will make her Australian team debut at the World Cross Country Championships. Raised in NSW country, for the last seven years Holly has shown glimpses of brilliance but progress has been hampered by injury. With enormous patience and under coach Jeremy Roff, she has flourished in the last few seasons. A 1500m specialist, Holly surprised athletics observers when she was able to mix it with 10km specialists to qualify for selection in the Australian team for the World Athletics Cross Country Championships to be held in Bathurst in February.

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Holly Campbell grew up on a 13,000 hectare farm named ‘Mundooie’, nearly 600km from Sydney and 60km from western NSW country town of Warren. In Primary school she was a ‘school of the air’ student at the Dubbo School of Distance Education. Learning was by radio initially and later satellite.

Her athletics also stared here and it would have been a rare opportunity to meet school mates face-to-face.

“I started running in primary school at the Western region small schools athletics carnival. It was one of the highlights of the year.”

While boarding in Sydney and attended Ascham School, her journey in athletics evolved.

“When I moved from the family farm to Sydney for high school I had the opportunity to try a lot of different sports but seemed to gravitate towards running.”

She did well on the track winning medals, and in later years going to National championships. Although interestingly only in her last year did she made the State team for XC.

“When I finished high school I started to do much more structured training and improved quickly.”

She was second in the Zatopek under-20 3000m race in 2015 and later that summer ran a 15 second PB of 4.15 for the 1500m.

“The next few years were very difficult with injuries but I started to race more consistently again in 2020.”

She improved over the COVID years and eventually in 2022 lowered her 4:15 PB set in 2017.

She explained those years since school.
“I struggled a lot with injury in my early 20s and it was difficult to do any consistent training and racing. The last few years I have been much more consistent and have had longer periods that I have been able to train injury free and this has helped me progress a lot, particularly my aerobic ability. I think after a few years coaching me Roffy has slowly increased my load and been able to work out the best way to keep me as healthy as possible.”

When the World Cross Country was set to be hosted in Australia, the event became a clear goal for Holly. But the distance was not what she was familiar with.

“I've been wanting to move up to the 5k for the last sort of 12 months but the 10k cross country was probably a fair step past that. I do think I'm a more strength-based athlete and I really enjoy the longer training so when the opportunity to run the cross country came up we decided it was worth a shot. I was pretty lucky to have a very seamless preparation for the trial.”

But the line-up for her race was very tough.

“I was a little bit intimidated by the calibre of the start list but I was very confident in my preparation so I did think I would be able to mix it on the day.”

She certainly was competitive holding a clear position in the top-3 for much of the race and eventually crossing the line in fifth, securing selection for the World Athletics Cross Country Championships.

Interesting facts: She grew up on a 13,000 hectare farm 8 hours west of Sydney, named Mundooie, 60km from Warren. The farm has beef cattle and dry land cropping (like wheat, oats and sorghum) and when there is sufficient water - cotton…What do you like best about competing: Seeing how much I can get out of myself. Competing is a great measure of progress. I also love the challenge and emotions associated with racing, nothing else really compares…Famous relative: Twin sister Paige Campbell - Australian representative at world championships in cross country and 3000m Steeplechase…Occupation: Customer Service for an Insurance company…Schools: Primary - Dubbo School of Distance Education & Secondary - Ascham School…Education: Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food Science) University of Sydney (Graduated 2021)…Who has been the most influential person in your career: My coach Jeremy Roff has been the most influential for me. I think he believes in me more than I do. He took me on and gave me a chance when I was at a pretty low point with my running and I don't think I would have achieved what I have today without him…Advice to your young self: Be patient, don't try to do everything at once and take rest seriously…Hobbies: I'm pretty passionate about food and cooking. I also really enjoy trying new cafes as I love flat whites…Sporting ambition: to get as much out of myself as I can and see where that takes me whilst continuing to enjoy the process.