SWIMMING RETIREMENT ANNOUNCED

Following months of battling against chronic ear infections, Sarah Bailey announced her retirement from international swimming at the DSE Short Course Nationals on 22nd and 23rd October.

Sarah who has competed internationally for the past 14 years as a swimmer, will now turn her attentions to cycling and will train full-time in her new sport with a view to competing at the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008. “It’s a relief more than anything,” Sarah laughs. “I’ve had some fantastic results in swimming and have so much to thank my coach Colin for, but we both agree it is time to move on.”

“Cycling will take me out of my comfort zone and provide me with so many new challenges. I have so much to learn and also have the potential to take cycling further than I have been able to go in swimming.”

“I am already ranked more highly in able-bodied cycling than I ever was in swimming and there will be more opportunities for me to work with able-bodied cyclists in training and competition. Swimming has fewer competition opportunities over the next few years, so it makes sense to move to a sport where I won’t just be training like a madwoman for months on end!”

“It’s good to go out on a high, I was close to the world record in my 100m freestyle and enjoyed being able to have one last competition after the year I have had with my ears!”

Bailey will now have a short rest from training before commencing winter training on her bike in early November.

BAILEY MAKES HISTORY AT BRITISH CYCLING NATIONALS

Following a glittering international debut in cycling in August, Sarah Bailey has gone on to further impress at the British Cycling Track Nationals held in Manchester from 3rd-7th October. Bailey, who rode in the able-bodied women’s events, came 11th in the 500m time trial and then went on to re-write the history books when she became the first disabled women to break the 4 minute barrier in the 3km pursuit.

Riding in the qualifying rounds against Rachel Heal from the able-bodied women’s endurance squad, Bailey further lowered her own world record to a 3.59.329 from the 4.01.140 she set in Holland. Then just 90 minutes later in the ride off for 7th and 8th position, Bailey won the tie and went 3.59.761 – a very respectable time considering it was done so soon after the first.

Sarah will now spend some time working out whether she is going to get back in the pool for good or whether she is going to turn her attentions to cycling. Since her 6th ear infection in July, Bailey has not been in chlorine water. On the advice of her doctors she is taking a considerable amount of time to allow the ears to heal once and for all. Sarah will now return to the water with a view to racing at the British Short Course Championships on October 22nd and 23rd.

BAILEY STRIKES GOLD ON INTERNATIONAL CYCLING DEBUT

Sarah Bailey struck gold and broke a world record on her debut in international cycling! Competing at the European Championships in Holland, Bailey took 1.5 seconds off the world record in the 3km pursuit and beat the previous record holder, Fiona Southorn from New Zealand in the process.

The European Championships has been opened up to the rest of the world to create stronger competition and Bailey secured gold in both the European category and the Open European category.

“I am amazed and delighted,” Sarah said. “Training has been going well and my schedule in the pursuit was to go under the world record, but the reality of doing it is amazing.”

Bailey went on to win European gold and Open European silver in the 500m time trial on the track as well as adding European and Open European gold in the Road Race and just for good measure European Silver and Open European bronze in the road time trial. It is certainly a debut to be proud of.

“I am stunned,” Sarah said. “This is beyond my wildest dreams, to come away with 8 medals, well no one expected that, least of all me! I have thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of racing and am now told I have a decision ahead as this could be the launch of a cycling career!”

BAILEY SELECTED FOR EUROPEAN CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Following huge disappointment after failing to secure swimming funding for 2006, Sarah Bailey is now off to try something new and is headed for Alkmaar in northern Holland for the European Cycling Championships.

Bailey was selected following some excellent performances in training and is showing potential in the 3km pursuit.

“I don’t know what to expect from it,” Bailey said. “I am looking forward to the challenge of another sport at international level….i just hope I don’t fall off!”

In Alkmaar Bailey will ride; 500m time trial and 3km pursuit on the track, the road time trial and the road race.

NOT QUITE GOOD ENOUGH IN GERMANY AND THE STATES

German Nationals and US Nationals followed each other in quick succession in June and July and despite contracting 2 more ear infections the week of the US Nationals, Bailey put in some excellent performances at both competitions.

Held at the Olympic Pool in Berlin, the German Nationals were poorly organised with heats and finals being held just an hour apart each day. Despite the lack of organisation, Bailey and her team mates raced well and Sarah was able to produce some solid performances, picking up 4 golds from 4 events in the S10 class.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform in Germany,” Sarah said. “I really need to secure my funding time for next year’s Lottery award, but so far I am a little way off.”

Unsurprisingly, after only 9 days swimming in 6 weeks, Bailey was unable to meet the tough standards required at the German competition, but then 2 weeks later became equally disappointed as 2 more ear infections came into the frame and Sarah again missed her funding times.

“I really thought I would be able to nail my 200m IM time here,” Sarah said from Portland. “And even though I am less than a second off it, which is a huge achievement after so much disruption, I am not entirely sure how seriously my ear infections will be taken.”

Following the publication of some quite ridiculous qualifying times for the Commonwealth Games, Sarah, who is GB’s top female freestyler, now stands now chance of competing in Melbourne as she will have to break the British record by 1.5 seconds in order to make the team. This also means that there are very few viable opportunities left this year at which to swim funding times, now that IPC have yet again been unable to host a European Championships.

Understandably Sarah is very disappointed, “I cannot believe the year I have been faced with, and now I am not even sure whether I will receive any funding next year. I have worked so hard to try and stay fit and to try and secure a funding time, but I am not sure that my efforts will be good enough.”

Sarah now has to wait until December to find out her fate within swimming.

EAR INFECTIONS PLAGUE BAILEY’S SWIMMING SEASON

Sarah Bailey is currently spending more time training on a bike than she is in the pool. Bailey who will compete in Germany and America in the next 2 months is trying desperately to be as fit as possible whilst she is being plagued by constant ear infections.

“I only seem to be able to go about 4 weeks in the pool at most before I contract another ear infection,” Sarah says. “I have had 4 infections between the end of February and the end of May and now it is getting to the stage where I am in danger of never being able to swim again unless I get the ears sorted.”

Bailey has been working alongside the disability squad at British Cycling’s National Cycling Centre in Manchester, in the hope that all the work on the bike will be a good substitution for the hours she would normally spend in the pool.

“I have to stay fit and training on a bike seemed like the best option,” Sarah explains. “I can’t risk getting my ears wet at all, otherwise I would be allowed in the water to kick, but even then you don’t get a proper cardio-vascular workout. I have been working alongside the guys and girls on the British teams at the velodrome and also been doing some long road rides. Everyone has been so supportive and I have even been able to do some racing!”

BAILEY RETURNS TO TRAINING

Following several months of deliberations, Sarah Bailey has now returned to training with a view of competing at the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Bailey will spend the first part of 2005 training in Australia where she will have the benefit of good weather and outdoor pools.

“I love Australia for training and it is the ideal place to get fit,” Sarah says. “The weather is guaranteed and you can spend time outside in the sun getting fit! The pain of getting into shape doesn’t feel so bad when the sun is shining on your back!”

ATHENS PARALYMPICS 2004

Competing in her 4th Paralympic Games as a swimmer, Sarah came away with what appeared to be a disappointing haul of 2 silver and 1 bronze, from a Games where she has been on target to achieve a great deal more.

The 9 day competition started for Sarah on Day3 with a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle. Her overall time in the event was the 2nd fastest of her life and she was beaten to the wall by 2 very talented swimmers Anne Polinario from Canada and Kataryzna Pawlik from Poland. The result was fantastic, in 100m freestyle a medal is outstanding as it’s such a lunge for the wall, medals really can be won from any lane!

Sarah’s second event was the 100m breaststroke, an event she has been using for the benefit of the 200m Individual Medley. Despite the number of breaststroke specialists in the event, Sarah sneaked in just behind the European record holder to win the silver medal in a British record of 1.25.38, over 0.6 seconds quicker than her previous record set at the Olympic Trials. Sarah’s delight at the unexpected medal was clear for everyone as she told the BBC, “I’m not a breaststroker, I do this event for fun and to help my medley, I can’t believe it, I’m lost for words!”

The real business end of Sarah’s hectic swimming competition programme started on the 5th day of competition when Sarah stepped up to the blocks for one of her main events over the past 13 years, the 200m Individual Medley. Having won the event in Barcelona in 1992 and then again in Atlanta in 1996, Sarah finished a disappointing 4th in Sydney in 2000 and was looking to the race in Athens to put the records straight. Qualifying for the final with exactly the same time in the heats as her long time rival, Claudia Hengst of Germany, Bailey was unable to match the speed of the fastest qualifier, Michaela Ritherford in Lane 4. Bailey gave everything in the final 50m to try and catch the 16 year old, but was someway shy of the teenager and had to settle for silver.

Day 6 of the competition saw Sarah wake up feeling like she had been run-over by a steam roller. Having suffered 2 late nights in a row for relay duties and then a drugs test that no one seemed to want to take from her, Sarah was fatigued and suffering from a virus. The 400m freestyle has been a second event in which Sarah had a real chance of gold, but feeling the way she did, her 5th place finish was very disappointing and the start of 3 days of torture as she was to take no further part in medal ceremonies.

Swimming the 100m backstroke and then the 50m freestyle to finish off her week Sarah had to reflect whether she would have done anything differently, but had to concede that it was decisions being made for her by British Swim Team management that had caused her to be overworked in the early part of the week.

“I was forced to go on the pre-Games training camp in Cyprus,” Sarah explained. “I had stated over 18 months prior to the Games that I wanted to stay at home for my preparation as being away from home unnecessarily for too long can add unnecessary fatigue. I was also forced to swim relays despite one of our team being too ill to really compete at all.”

“Swimmer’s are not robots and with my experience I should have been trusted to make the decisions that were going to see me competing at the best of my ability. I do feel robbed that decisions made for me, have affected the way I have swum here in Athens. The fact there were no spare girls to make up the relay when Lara fell ill is an outrage. I cannot believe that my whole Games has been affected because a relay alternate wasn’t selected.”

The future for Sarah now lies in a few months well earned rest and during that time she will be looking towards the future and the possibility of a 5th Games in Beijing in 2008.