JADE?BAILEY wants another shot at glory.
This country’s fastest woman says she has put the disappointment of the recent Commonwealth Games behind her, and will concentrate on capturing a medal in the 200 metres at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC)?Games slated for Veracruz, Mexico, from November 14 to 30.
“The focus will now be on the 200 metres. I may drop the 100-metre dash and just run the 200 metres at the CAC?Games.
“The 100 has just been to prepare myself for the 200 metres for the speed but not competitively. I missed out in Scotland and will be giving the CAC?my best shot,” said Bailey, who holds the national record of 22.91 seconds.
Her defining moment thus far has been a bronze in the 200 metres at the 2006 CAC?Games in Colombia, and Bailey was quick to acknowledge that preparation would be very important in the build-up towards Mexico.
“The athletes did reasonably well at the Commonwealth Games, but going foward to the CAC?Games, we all have to prepare well. We need meets. We can’t come home and sit down and relax.
“Most of us who are going to CAC?in Mexico know that we have to compete in a meaningful way between now and November if we are to get the medals that Barbados wants. It is up to the association and us to do our part,” she added.
Bailey, 31, came up short in the 100 and 200 metres in Glasgow, failing to get past the semi-finals of both events.
In the 100 metres, she clocked 11.64 seconds in the opening round in a heat won by the world-class Jamaican sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown, and then finished last in her semi-final race in 11.74 seconds, way adrift of the top two, Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria and Jamaican Kerron Stewart. Okagbare, Campbell-Brown, and Stewart were the top three in the final.
Bailey, the only member of the Barbados track team not to make it to a final, blamed a bout of influenza on her dismal showing.
“Catching the flu meant that I was not at my best. That kind of dampened everything. I am still not feeling well. I can do what I can do. I?am seeing the doctor and I have to take a rest before hard training starts.
“I wanted a medal but everything happens for a reason. I have to look past the Commonwealth Games and move on, just start over and see where the mistakes were made.
“It makes no sense pondering on it because I didn’t get a medal. There is the World Championships next year and the Olympics in 2016,” she added.
Bailey has a point to prove in light of her very modest record at global meets. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, she failed to reach the semi-finals of both sprints and the following season at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, she did not get past the opening heat of the 200 metres.
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