Gary Champion
I guess with my name (and yes it is real!) I was destined to work in sport. I've been very fortunate in my career, working in Nice and Italy for a year, the Middle East in both TV and radio, on sport at Sky News and for ITV with TSW. My early radio days were spent reporting from a cold, wet rugby or football touchline. I moved to a motorsport weekly newspaper in London and covered the World Rally Championship, circuit racing and even spent a week flying with The Red Arrows!
Next came television as I joined TV.am as their sports journo, cutting my teeth under a producer who made sure we covered all results, even the greyhound racing and speedway. You may laugh, but it impressed upon me the importance of minority sports and since then I've been a Champion (excuse the pun) of the less popular sports, without forgetting the big stuff like Premier League football and rugby, County and Test cricket and so on. So, on Saturday afternoons, between 2 and 6pm we'll open our airwaves to local sportsmen and women of all ages and their clubs and organisations. If there's a story to tell, a result, a score, an achievement or even a disappointment, we want to know about and we will broadcast it.
I'm a huge motorsport fan, especially rallying, having been a National Champ co-driver some years ago in a Mark 2 Escort! Ah, happy days! I still enjoy a bit of karting. I'm an RFU ref and spend quite a few Sundays running up and down a pitch blowing a whistle. I really enjoy the youngsters' games, where you're both a ref and a mentor. It's important to show them the rules, but also to encourage them with the game. My children have had mixed success with sport. Both were schooled in the Plymouth area; Jack plays rugby for Tavy while Kate is at Uni and a keen gym girl. She did try her hand at rugby but quit after the first time she got hurt! She also rides occasionally at weekends.
Me? Apart from the refereeing, I tend to use the gym a few times a week to TRY and keep the pounds off, enter various charity bike rides (I'm doing Ilfracombe to Plymouth in May) and running a 10K in London for MacMillan at the end of the same month. There'll be live reports for Radio Plymouth of course!
