I just want to be me, says Bailey-Cole
MOSCOW, Russia — Up-and-coming Jamaican sprinter Kemar-Bailey-Cole wants his own identity and does not wish to be the ‘next anybody’ in sprinting, he says.
The long-legged sprinter who finished second to training partner Usain Bolt in the men’s 100m at the JAAA National Senior Championships in June to make his first senior national team to a global championships, says he wants to forge his own identity in the sport and not be compared to anyone else.
“I don’t want to be the next Bolt,” he told reporters at a media session following Wednesday’s training session at the team’s base here in Moscow.
“I am me and I want to be the first Kemar Bailey-Cole,” he said.
That might be difficult given that he trains with the double World Record holder at the Racers TC camp under the watchful eyes of sprint guru Glen Mills and the height comparisons are hard to miss.
It was thought that taller athletes were not suited for the shorter 100m race and were best advised to stick to the 200m or even the 400m, but Bolt made his name running the 200m. After winning a bet with Mills in 2008, Bolt went on to shock the world with a series of fast times leading up to his first World Record run at the New York Diamond League meeting and has since become the poster boy of the sport globally.
Bailey-Cole has started to forge his own identity, as a year after being beaten by compatriot Jazeel Murphy on the CARIFTA Games Under-20 100m in Montego Bay, not only made the Jamaican men’s 4x100m relay team to the Olympic Games in London where he won a gold medal and also dipped under 10 seconds for the first time later in the season.
This season, Bailey-Cole is in the team to run the 100m and says he is not overwhelmed. “I am not nervous, I have been training with these guys all along and it has made me more confident,” he said.
While admitting he has had an “up and down” season, he says that it is all behind him now and he hopes to make it as far as the medal round of the 100m.
Bailey Cole said his “back ground training” hs gone well and he is well prepared for the men’s 100m that starts on he first day of competition. “I am OK, I have no issues at all,” he said.
