DARREN: I ESCAPED GANG HELL Athlete’s knife terror

OLYMPIC gold medal winner Darren Campbell has revealed his secret past as a teenage gang member.

The 47-year-old told how a close pal from his crew was shot dead, and how he had a lucky escape in a knifing.

It prompted Darren to flee the violence he saw growing up on the Racecourse Estate in Sale and in Moss Side in Manchester.

Revealing how a long-standing gang feud involving his friend “T” escalated, Darren said: “We were about to discover the true meaning of gang violence. T was like a surrogate little brother to me.

“One of my friends received a call. T... had been gunned down and killed. Every ounce of energy in my body dropped to my toes. There was so much pain.”

His mum’s fears that Darren would be next were almost realised when he and a friend called Marlon were attacked by a rival crew in Manchester’s Royal Exchange shopping centre.

Darren said: “They came at us and we started fighting. We were surrounded and taking punches from all directions while trying to fight back until security guards or the police arrived, but no-one came.

“It suddenly turned more hostile and very dangerous when one of the five revealed a knife and lunged at us both. I was lucky. The knife slashed

SUCCESS: Darren fled risk of violence to focus on athletics career through my coat, missed my midriff, but left a six-inch gash in the leather. “Heaven knows what damage that blade could have inflicted.”

After this, he decided to leave Manchester and moved to Wales to focus on athletics.

The decision paid off and Darren embarked on a glittering sports career, including winning gold in the relay at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, inset, and 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. But in his new book Track Record, the dad of three said he felt “shame” that he almost chose a life of crime after agreeing to take part in a pub robbery. Darren believes fate had a hand in keeping him on the straight and narrow – after his bike got a puncture.

He said: “I was on my way to my first pub robbery. I was 16 years old, in a gang of six boys.

“On the way to what would have been a misguided and juvenile act of serious criminality with severe consequences, that sign I had been looking for came. My bike suffered a puncture. “I believe it was fate and, since that day, I have developed a strong faith and spirituality – even though I’ve hardly ever gone to church.”