Oshane Bailey: A story of broken dreams
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2019 | 12:00 AMAndrÈ Lowe/Sports Editor
DOHA, Qatar:
Nine years ago, sprinter Oshane Bailey was living his dreams.
Still only 21 years old at the time, he had registered his fastest ever 100m clocking – 10.11 seconds – and was carrying Jamaica’s hopes in the 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, after winning at the National Senior Championships earlier in the year.
The script was written. He was all but crowned as one of the brightest prospects coming out of the sprint-mad nation and was the gold medal winner-elect for the 100m final in the Indian capital.
He would end up missing the final after suffering a crushing hamstring injury in the semi-finals, and as he admits, he has never truly recovered from that disaster – not physically and certainly not mentally.
“Up to this day, every day I look back at that day with regret. I wish I could go back in time and run that final. I knew I would have won. A lot of things would have been different,” said Bailey, who is in Doha for the World Championships as a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay pool.
Hard Recovery
“It is really tough coming back from an injury like that. You have to put in a lot of extra work to get back close to the bigger guys. It’s like you are back in background training all the time. It’s really tough. Mentally, it’s also very rough,” added the now 30-year-old Bailey.
“Most times, it’s the mindset. If your mind isn’t strong, you won’t be able to get over it and perform how you are supposed to perform.”
Bailey, who has so far gone 10.22 seconds this season, has never truly managed to show the promise he did back in 2010 since that setback but is hoping that having fully recovered from his physical and psychological struggles, he will now be able to get his career back on track.
“I am very pleased to be here at the World Championships,” he said, smiled.
“It’s a dream come true. This is my second World Championships and my first since 2013, so I am really looking forward to the meet,” Bailey added. “There are a lot of years between those championships and a lot of injuries as well. I have managed to get rid of those injuries now, and I am looking ahead.”
“Since I went to GC Foster College in 2016, I learnt a lot from my coach, Maurice Wilson. He helped me a lot, so I have to give thanks to him and the management staff at Sprintec for helping me,” said Bailey.