COMMONWEALTH Games men’s 100m champion Kemar Bailey- Cole was surprised by how fast he ran on Friday night to take third place in the 100m final at the JAAA National Senior Championships at the National Stadium, clocking a season’s best 9.97 seconds behind Asafa Powell’s 9.84 seconds and Nickel Ashmeade’s 9.91 seconds.

Bailey-Cole, who was inactive for most of the early season with the viral infection Chikungunya, admitted he did not know he was running so fast in the final.

“I am surprised I ran so fast and was hoping for a 10 seconds flat as I was not pushing (too much),” he said. Going under 10 seconds, he told reporters, was good for him as he gets ready for the circuit then for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China.

“I am pretty pleased with my performance tonight,” he said, “as I was out most of the early part of the year, so I am happy to have gone under 10 seconds.”

With that out of the way, Bailey-Cole said it was back to training “to get some more work done”, as he seeks to get back to the final of the men’s 100m at the World Championships after he was fourth two years ago in Moscow, Russia.