Bailey-Cole over injury nightmare
Published:Thursday | February 13, 2020 | 12:10 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Sprinter Kemar Bailey-Cole says he is now fully fit and aiming to secure an individual spot on Jamaica’s team to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, this summer.
Bailey-Cole, who is the 2014 Commonwealth Games 100m champion, has been hampered by a series of hamstring injuries over the past three seasons, which prevented him from competing.
The 28-year-old, who is now conditioned by Gregory Little at Racers Track Club after moving on from the club’s head, Glen Mills, suffered a grade-two hamstring tear at the National Championships last year and was forced to miss the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar in September.
Bailey-Cole made his seasonal debut at the Camperdown Classic on Saturday in the men’s 400m where he finished fourth in 47.52 seconds.
“My performance was very great because I didn’t go out there expecting any times,” Bailey-Cole said. “I just went out there to run a good 350m and try to hold it coming home, and I did that.
“My preparations are going very well because coach Gregory Little knows his thing and I really have confidence in him. I have been working with him from the start of my career, and there is a lot more to come.”
Bailey-Cole says that he is has got stronger and his body is in what he considers excellent shape at the moment.
“For the past few years it has been basically hamstring injuries, leg after leg,” he said. “I pulled two times in the left leg and one in the right, so I have been strengthening and doing lot more stuff that I never normally do.
“I have been doing more lactic workout over distance. The strength is coming back, and I have more confidence in myself and [the] coach, so I’m just look forward to great things for the rest of the season.”