Former national champion, Oshane Bailey, is looking forward to an injury-free season and a bid for a place in the Jamaican Olympic team.
Speaking just after a controlled 100-metre win at the Western Relays in Montego Bay on Saturday, Bailey was cautiously optimistic about his prospects for 2016.
Asked to assess his early season races, he said: “Yes, fairly good start to the season right now.”
At the Grace Jackson/Queens meet two weeks earlier, he looked zippy over 60 metres, as he stopped the National Stadium clock at 6.60 seconds. On Saturday in Montego Bay, he smoothly sprinted to a winning time of 10.32 seconds. His run was aided by a wind barely over the allowable limit at 2.2 metres per second.
He said his move from Akan Track Club to the GC Foster College of Physical Education and the SprinTec Club has been “alright so far”. He had been coached by Michael Clarke ever since his transfer from Vauxhall High School to Calabar High, and stayed with Clarke at Akan when his schoolboy days ended in 2009. Now he is coached by Maurice Wilson.
His new training partners include 2008 Olympic 100-metre silver medallist Sherone Simpson and 2014 Commonwealth 200-metre winner, Rasheed Dwyer.
“I’m getting myself used to the camp right now,” he said of his new training environment at Angels, Spanish Town, where the college is located.
His senior career started well as he beat Olympic finalist Michael Frater to win the 2010 national 100-metre title and reached the Commonwealth Games final. Now 26, he set his personal best of 10.11 at the 2010 NACAC Under 23 championships.
Consistent since then in the 10.1 range, he got a taste of high-level international action as anchorman of the Jamaican 4×100 team in the heats at the 2013 World Championships.
With injury trouble and the change of camps behind him, Bailey is taking the Olympic year step by step. The three-time individual Boys’ Championships medal winner has straightforward goals for this season.
“Going to the Trials injury- free, going to make the final,” he said. “The rest will come.”