Alberto Campbell-Staines - Paralympian
About Alberto Campbell-Staines
Alberto's Story
Alberto has overcome many obstacles, not just with his running, but in his life. He was born premature in Kingston, Jamaica and at 3 months of age was sent to a state run orphanage where at times he suffered from malnutrition and neglect. When he was 5 years of age he was transferred to The Nest, a Salvation Army run orphanage, where Alberto received love and care for the first time in his life. The Nest is situated on the same compound at the school where Paul and Julie-Anne Staines taught. Alberto attended this school for the blind, although he is not visually impaired, and it was here that he met Paul and Julie-Anne. Julie-Anne became his Grade 1 teacher!
In 2002 at the age of 9, they became a family when Paul and Julie-Anne adopted him. He still keeps in contact with some of his friends from The Nest. He came to Australia with his parents at the end of 2003 and received his Australian citizenship a little over three years later.
Returning to Australia
Alberto was ten when the family moved back to Australia, and he came across a number of challenges. Many 'new' things had to be addressed, such as: he had never been in a bath and didn’t know what to do, he had never seen hot water taps, he did not know how to dress for winter and was completely confused with why the children at school all wanted to feel his hair and tell him that it felt like carpet. Alberto had never even seen carpet before and now to be told his hair felt like it was bewildering!
Alberto Campbell-Staines is a Jamaican born elite athlete. Now an Australian, he represents his country as an Paralympian (T20 catergory) in the 400m sprint.
He is currently part of AIS "Australia's Winning Edge" program. He is on scholarship with Athletics Australia at the "Podium Potential" level and a member of the Queensland Academy of Sport.
He is the Australian Para-Champion for the 200m and 400m sprints and has represented his country at the IPC World Championships in 2015. He now hopes to represent Australia again at the Rio Paralympics in 2016.
When I run, I feel His pleasure
It wasn’t long before it was discovered that Alberto had the talent to run fast. At his first school athletics day in Australia he won every race. Since Alberto started running competitively he has had on his bedroom wall the famous words said by Eric Liddell “I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure”. Running to Alberto is an act of worship. Prayer before and after races is an intricate part of his race preparation. His parents often comment that to watch him run is to see a miracle in action, they have said that Alberto “is living proof that God’s power may save you from anything”.
While Alberto competes with Able Bodied Athletes on a regular basis at club and state level he is also able to compete as an AWD (Athlete With a Disability) in the T20 category. Athletes in the T20 category are classified as having an Intellectual disability. When asked about what it is like to be an Athlete With a Disability, Alberto responds with confidence, “Well, it’s who I am”.
Alberto became more serious about his running when he was 12 years old and since then has competed at club and state level as an Abled Bodied Athlete and at a national and international level as an AWD. He is expertly coached by Annette Rice and is a member of the QE2 Track club where he trains up to 6 days a week. Under Annette’s coaching, Alberto had great success at the 2012 Australian Open, AWD & Combined Events Championships that were held in Melbourne in mid April. This was the first open national championship he competed at as an AWD. Previously, in 2011, Alberto had competed at the Australian Junior AWD Championship obtaining results of 1st in the 400m and 2nd in the 100m and 200m in the under20 age group.
At the 2012 Australian Open, AWD & Combined Events Championships he was the only sprinter to enter in all 3 sprint events (100m, 200m & 400m) and the only sprinter to make it to the final in each event. He was amongst the youngest (18rys) competitor to compete. Alberto results were very impressive for his first ever Australian Open and AWD Championships, coming, 2nd in the 200m Ambulant Men’s, 3rd in the 400m Ambulant Men’s and 4th in the 100m Ambulant Men’s. He was also the 1st T20 athlete across the line in all these events making him the Open Australian Champion for the T20 category in the 100m, 200m and 400m events. At the end of the 2011/2012 athletes season his world ranking as a T20 athlete was nothing but impressive, 400m – 5th, 200m – 7th and 100m - 20th.
In 2013 Alberto continued his success as a Queensland Representative at the 91 Australian Open and AWD Championships in April. He once again was the 1st T20 athlete across the line in the 200m and 400m making him the Open Australian Champion for the T20 category in the 200m and 400m events. (Alberto had dropped the 100m event from his arsenal so as to better concentrate on his 400m, which continues to be his main and favourite event). Overall, in the combined percentage results he received the bronze for the 400m and silver for the 200m, running personal bests in both these finals.
9th INAS World Athletics Championships
In May, 2013, Alberto was selected to represent Australia at the 9th INAS World Athletics Championships, taking place in Prague in early June. This would be Alberto first exposure to international competition. Alberto competed in the 400m, 200m, 4x100m and 4X400m and was the youngest member of the Australian Team.
Alberto’s first event for the INAS World Athletics Championships was the 400m Alberto easily made it through to the final, winning his heat convincingly, turning off with a 100m to go. On paper Alberto’s PB placed him as the 4th fastest going into this competition.
In the final that took place on the next day, Alberto Campbell ran a personal best time of 49.73 seconds to win Bronze. It was the first medal for Australia at the Championships. At the start of the day Campbell declared he was going to run a PB, when told if he ran a PB he could win a medal Campbell was shocked, his focus had been getting to the final and then doing his best, he hadn’t contemplated winning a medal.
As it happened he ran the perfect race, Head Coach Anula Costa talked to Campbell about running strong through the last 50m when others are struggling, with 50m to go Campbell was in 5th position, as instructed he ran strong, held his form and produced both a personal best by over a second and a Bronze medal.
Alberto was the youngest sprinter in the final by over 2 years and with 7 out of the 8 finalists all ran PB’s it was an extremely hard fought final.
It was a medal the whole team and supporters shared, with no other Australian athletes competing on that day, everyone was there in support of Alberto, including a number of coaches from other countries who had heard about this Australian Usain Bolt.
Throughout the 2013 season Alberto’s coach Annette Rice has being saying to him that his standard of training shows he is ready to run a sub-50 and Alberto made this prediction come true on the world stage. In an interview after the race he thanked his coach for all the hard work she had put in with him and the belief that she had that he could run under 50. He said “Before the race I remembered my coaches words “Alberto you can run faster, it will hurt but you are fit and strong, it won’t kill you”. It did hurt, but she was right I just had to push through it” Alberto’s result in this race is a testament to her commitment to her athletes and expertise as an athletics coach of the highest level.
On the next day of competition Alberto just missed out on making it to the 200m final. Finishing 3rd in his heat, he missed out by 0.03 of a second as a ‘next fastest qualifier’.
In the 4x100m Alberto ran the 4th leg of the 4x100m and the Australians came 5th.
On the final day of competition the scene was set for a great 4x400m. The team of Matthew Pascoe (QLD), Paul Gilbert (WA), Terry Price (VIC) and Alberto Campbell (QLD) did an outstanding job winning Bronze with a new Australian record time (T20). There was much chaos in the 2nd and 3rd changeovers, yet the Australian boys held tough and battled through. At the end of the race 4 teams were disqualified including Australia, however after an hour and 40mins of protests and appeals to the Referee, Australia and Venezuela were re-instated, Venezuela Gold, Poland Silver and Australia Bronze. The time for the team was 3:32.81. Alberto ran the 4th leg with a split of 49.50.
Lots of Supporters
Throughout all of Alberto’s hardships and successes he has experienced the support of family and friends. None of Alberto’s success would have been possible without the love and support of lots of people.
The QE2 Track Club have supported Alberto’s running for many years and were the biggest financial contributor for his trip to the INAS World Championships.
Alberto works as a Primary Teacher’s Assistant at Citipointe Christian College. The staff and students of the school have been very supportive of Alberto, with children in the school sending messages and writing stories about him and staff contributing financially for Alberto’s trip to Prague. The school have been generous in granting Alberto leave to compete when he needs it.
Alberto often refers to his training squad as his “training family”, they are always there with words of encouragement and practical advice. One member of the squad said to Alberto before he left for World Champs “We all believe in you, now all you have to do is remember to believe in yourself”.
Alberto’s coach, Annette Rice, has been a wonderful coach for Alberto. She seems to know intrinsically the right words to say to Alberto to bring out his best. She is always searching for new training strategies and techniques to help Alberto improve. But most importantly she treats him as a person, not someone ‘different’ because he has a disability. To her, Alberto is an athlete first and foremost, his disability doesn’t change anything but just means she expertly modifies the delivery of his program to suit the disability.
Alberto has a large extended family who diligently support his efforts, particularly his grandparents who often come and watch him compete. Many people have said to his parents how wonderful it is that they ‘saved Alberto’. They don’t see it this way. Alberto has taught them so much; he has brought so much joy into so many people’s lives. Alberto has ‘saved’ them; he has enriched so many people’s lives beyond measure. His parents said “it overwhelms us to think that in 2002 he was in an orphanage suffering from malnutrition and now he is competing for his country”. Alberto has come a long way from that orphanage in Kingston, Jamaica and he has his sights aimed on going even further.