Love Island's Theo Campbell insists he didn't choose the TV show over athletics
Tuesday 25 July 2017 11:10, UK
Love Island's Theo Campbell insists he did not choose the hit reality TV show over his athletics career.
The 26-year old Team GB athlete, who reportedly joined the programme without informing British Athletics, spent 11 days at the villa in Majorca which sees single participants hoping to find love battle for the £50,000 winning prize.
However, the 400m runner says the opportunity to feature on the show came after he was ruled out of next month's World Athletics Championships in London.
"I didn't choose Love Island over athletics," Campbell told Sky Sports News.
"They wanted me on Love Island to begin with but I said my first priority is athletics; I'm going to go to the World Championships. That was my target."
"Love Island was only a backup in case the worst case scenario happened, and I got injured.
"I did compete in the finals of the National Championships [Birmingham] but I didn't make it.
"I thought I'm not going to the World Championships now just coming back off injury."
Campbell has raced in the Bahamas, Lisbon and Munich this year without cementing a place in the team, but remains focused on reaching his goal of representing Great Britain at Tokyo 2020.
"Athletics is still my number one priority. But this has given me another dimension to work with as well," he added.
"I'll talk to my coach and we'll take it from here. [Tokyo] 2020 is in my plans.
"But doing this alongside it has opened up more opportunities. I always take as many opportunities as I can. I'm going to try and balance them both really well."
