Aleen Bailey, now coached by Lloyd Clarke - file

Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Philadelphia, USA:

Olympic sprint relay gold medallist Aleen Bailey has changed her coach in a bold move to get ready in time for the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan this summer.

Bailey, who returned to Jamaica in 2004 to join Glen Mills' Racers Track Club, has now switched to Lloyd Clarke's Royalty Track Club.

"I am working with Lloyd," the 26-year-old Bailey told The Gleaner in an interview after competing for Jamaica at the Penn Relays on Saturday at the Franklin Field Stadium in Pennsylvania.

"Lloyd and I get along very well and he is the kind of person that I needed a long time ago, because he is more demanding and he expects a lot from you," added Bailey, who along with Sherone Simpson, Tayna Lawrence, and Veronica Campbell took Jamaica to a historic sprint relay victory in Athens three years ago.

A good coach

"He is a very good coach, and he cares about his athletes very much, and he wants you to do well, and because he wants it so much for you, if you fail, he feels like he has aslo failed," added the former national sprint double champion.

Bailey, also a former NCAA 100m champion, believes Clarke drives her to fulfil her potential. "And that's why I wake up 5 a.m. every morning to train and then go back in the evening, because of how he is and how determined he is," said Bailey whose personal best times are 11.04 (100m) and 22.33 for 200m.

Bailey said she had no problems with Mills but felt it was time for a change.

"I am not saying coach Mills is a bad coach, coach Mills is a wonderful coach, he is good, he has done an amazing job, I ran well 2004-2005, but sometimes something works for you, another time it doesn't," explained the Olympic 100m finalist.

She said her training "is going really, really great"

"I am doing a whole lot of new stuff, my technique has improved and I lost a few pounds on my hips," she said with a big smile.

Osaka (World Champs)

"But everything is geared towards Osaka (World Champs), and I look good, I ran a 4x100m a short while ago and I felt like myself, so I am getting ready, I will be there in time," she said.

The former Girls Championships Class One sprint double champion is aware of the fast times by Kerron Stewart this season and the fact that Sherone Simpson and Veronica Campbell are the only ones to run sub-11, but is determined to win an individual place in the Osaka sprints.

"Let's just say they might have to do a photo finish, because the way all the girls are looking, it's going to be very amazing, because Jamaica is back and at the trials you can expect the top four people to run sub-11," she added.

"The women are going to run very well this year," added Bailey, who opens her season in the 200m at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston on Saturday. Some track and field observers believe Bailey will not be among the top three, but she sees this as a positive sign.

"The pressure is not on me, because I am not in the spotlight anymore and I like that," she said. "I like just training without. anybody expecting too much from me," she added, while warning that her first sub-11 clocking should be close.

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