MARRIAGE should never be the tomb of sports.

And Victoria Cambell knows that.

The 26-year-old triathlete from Britain has been regarded as one of Singapore's top woman triathlete since she started racing here in 2003.

But in recent years, Cambell, who used to do more than 10 races a year, has been keeping a low profile, cutting her races down to three or four a year.

It has been rumoured that she has decided to retire from the sports scene after her marriage to Singaporean Darryl Chen in 2007.

'No! I have not retired. Far from it!' Cambell told The New Paper when we met her at the Nike flagship store in Wisma Atria recently.

Cambell, who is now a Singapore Permanent Resident, works at Nike as a running coach.

She said: 'Yes, I want to spend more time on my work and also with my husband. But I am continuing with my training. I haven't retired.

'I think, in the past, I joined too many races, year after year. My training became more of a routine than an enjoyment. Now I just want to take the time to work on my weaknesses and recover.'

She added: 'I don't like to train for a specific purpose. I want to do it and enjoy it. Now I focus my training on areas that I want to work on. When I am ready to race, I will see what is available for me to join.

'We cannot be racing without breaks. In the long term we will get very tired.'

Born in Manchester, Cambell's father is British and her mother is Singaporean.

She was raised in Germany where she picked up swimming at 11.

She moved to Singapore alone and studied for her Bachelor of Science degree at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The good-looking young woman has appeared in print advertisements for H-TWO-O and Nike.

She recalled how she was four times her current size when she came to Singapore in 2002.

To lose weight, Cambell started running. And it took her about a year to shed her extra kilos.

'Then I met my husband. He was looking for a woman to join his team for a race in campus,' Cambell recalled.

Prolific athlete

Since then, Cambell has never stopped running, with or without her husband.

In her first competitive year, Cambell took part in 16 races and claimed top three positions for 12 of them. The following year, she joined 19 races and came in top three positions for 13 of them.

But to Cambell, pushing the frontiers of sport does not mean joining more races.

It's important to enjoy the sport, she reiterated.

Today, the Nike and H-TWO-O-sponsored athlete focuses her training on her core fitness and works on her speed for short distance run.

She hits the gym and attends yoga classes four times a week.

She said: 'Before, I could swim, run and cycle, but I couldn't do a single push-up. Now, I can.'

Cambell runs only 40km a week, but at a speed of between 4min 30sec and 5min 30sec per kilometre.

Twice a month, she goes for a 5km run down Orchard Road, with members of the Nike Run Club SG.

Cambell said: 'I will keep running. That part of me will never die.'

CAMBELL'S RACE REPORT CARD

2003

This article was first published in The New Paper