Blake, Karlee and Jason Bailey have the Olympic rings in their sights as their athletics careers move ahead in leaps and bounds. 78574 Picture: Russell Bennett
By Russell Bennett
YOUNG Pakenham sprinter Karlee Bailey doesn’t have to go far to find the motivation to push herself that little bit harder, to run that little bit faster. Neither does her big brother Jason, or little brother Blake.
Jason, in Year 11 at Berwick Secondary College, is a 400 metre hurdler; Karlee, Year 9, a 100 and 200 metre sprinter; and Blake, Year 8, a 200 metre hurdler.
And all three have a clear goal, one shared dream – to one day make the Australian Olympic team.
They leave today for the Australian Youth Championships at Homebush in Sydney on the weekend. When they come back, they’re preparing straight away for the Victorian state titles in Bendigo and, following that, the Stawell Gift.
The Homebush event is the culmination of nine months of hard work on the training track and years spent polishing a craft that started in the most unlikely of places.
“Basically it started off at baseball about eight years ago,” Karlee said.
“We were pretty quick running around after the ball.”
Jason was then 11 years old and Karlee eight. Neither had prodigious baseballing talent, but neither had much of an idea just how athletically gifted they were.
The pair, along with little brother Blake, joined Pakenham Little Athletics and by the time Karlee was nine, she had made the Victorian school athletics team.
The three Bailey kids now train three times per week – splitting their time between the grass track at Pakenham, and the synthetic surface at Casey Fields.
Dad Brendan said the sibling rivalry between the three kids sometimes led to fighting and bickering between events, but come the day of competition, they were all in each other’s corner.
“We’re very lucky in Pakenham because we’ve got Matt De Bruin as well,” he said.
“The kids train with him and there have been a couple of others who have done the same thing.
“They’re lucky to have people in town who know what it’s all about because that’s the biggest learning curve – to sit down and work out where you have to be, what you have to do and what you have to eat.”
The three Bailey kids have a sprinter’s typical high-energy diet but Karlee won’t eat on competition days. She gets too nervous. She is too focussed on competing – on setting her next personal best time.
And that determination has led her to prioritise her athletics over her social life.
“They have a few clashes with parties and that sort of stuff,” Brendan said.
“Karlee went to one party and tried to run a 200 the next day and couldn’t do it.
“We’ve sort of made them aware now.
“Her girlfriends ask ahead now before parties so we work around it because we still want her to have a normal life.”
Recent results at the Victorian Junior Track and Field Championships at Albert Park indicate all three Baileys have long careers ahead.
Karlee won silver in the under-16 women’s 100m and bronze in the 200m, Jason won silver in the under-18 400m hurdles, and Blake snared bronze in the 200m hurdles after stumbling just 10 metres from the finishing line. He says it cost him silver, displaying that famous Bailey winning mentality.
When asked what would run through their minds later this year as they watch the Olympic athletics on TV, Karlee, Jason and Blake were all adamant: “That will (one day) be me.”
Matt De Bruin will also be competing at Homebush after winning the 110m and 400m hurdles, as well as the 200m sprint at the Victorian junior titles.
