UTEP junior sprinter Sean Bailey seeks track championship

Jun 20, 2023

What will never be in question with UTEP junior sprinter Sean Bailey is his raw talent.

The younger brother of all-time great sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown came to the Miners this year as the NJCAA record holder in the indoor 400 and owner of five national championships at that level, and he came with all the expectations that entails.

The questions around him have always involved his health, and, at the moment, that's the best it's ever been. When he opens his outdoor season Saturday at the UTEP Springtime Invitational, there is almost no goal too high.

"He has the talent to be the very best," UTEP coach Mika Laaksonen said. "He has all the tools. It's about him working hard at it and getting three, four, five more years under his belt. There is nobody he can't beat, but time will tell.

"We were very fortunate to have him sign with us; everybody wanted him. It says something about our program."

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Another thing about Bailey that can't be questioned: His confidence is as big as his talent.

"I want to run 44.2 this year, go the World Championships, win the (NCAA) national championship," he said.

On those points, he has much work to do. His current personal best in the 400 is 45.24 seconds, but the younger brother of the eight-time Olympic medalist, three-time gold medalist, three-time World Champion Campbell-Brown (Simply VCB in Jamaica) could have no other expectations.

"I have big shoes to fill," he said. "It was awesome, seeing her compete. I'd get nervous like her, watching her with all my family on TV. We talk every week. She tells me to make sure I stay healthy and the times will come. She motivates me to make sure I keep up on what I need to do."

Said his event coach and fellow Jamaican Davian Clarke: "It's great whenever you get the opportunity to recruit somebody that comes from a family with so much success in track and field, especially from Jamaica. There's a lot of pressure on him to live up to it, a lot of expectations. But he has a good attitude. Like his sister, he broke the junior college record in his event."

Bailey comes to the school formerly known as Texas Western from Western Texas College in Snyder, where he was just about unbeatable, and spent the two years before he got to El Paso making the transition to living in America and Texas.

"It was a big cultural change, a different training system, learning the people, different ways of life," he said of his time in Snyder. "Here, it's not that big of a transition. It's the same thing as Snyder.

"I like El Paso; it's quiet. I like to stay at home, and it's quiet here. Even when there's something to do, it's not too over-the-top. That's how I like it."

What he also likes is being healthy. He wanted to run faster this indoor season, where he was third in the Conference USA 400 in 46.89, but the biggest thing is he didn't get hurt in a limited indoor schedule and that has him on track for a big outdoor season.

"It wasn't my best indoor season, but I was healthy the whole time," he said. "Now I have to go back to the drawing board and fix some stuff."

Clarke said: "He's an immense talent. He hasn't been used a lot; he hasn't gone through a lot of competition. Some of that is good; some of that is bad. He's had some injuries that slowed him down along the way over the last couple of years.

"He has the talent, but running the 400 is a lot more than talent. There's a lot of technique: how to race the race properly. He's learning that slowly. Hopefully, he'll catch that in the two years he's here at UTEP," Clarke said.

"He needs to be patient, learn grow."

An intermediate goal will be to take down Emmanuel Korir's school record in the 400 of 44.53. The immediate goal this week at the UTEP Springtime is to run 45.

"That would keep me on track," he said.

The big goal of 44.2 "is a good goal to have; now he needs to start chipping at it, lowering his times little by little and see where this season takes him," Laaksonen said.

"He's healthier than he's ever been, and he's still young. He just needs to keep at it, trust the process. He'll get to run against the very best."

By doing that, he'll give himself a chance to prove he is the very best, which is where he sees himself soon enough.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at 546-6359; [email protected]; @bretbloomquist on Twitter.

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UTEP junior sprinter. ... Transfer from Texas Western College in Snyder. ... Set NJCAA record of 46.08 seconds in indoor 400. ... Five-time NJCAA national champion, three in 400s, two in 4x400 relays. .... Brother of all-time great sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown. ... Native of Spanish Town, Jamaica.