cops bronze in 5 000m
GUYANA’S Cleveland Forde expressed delight at competing at the just concluded Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games held at the Mayagüez Athletics Stadium in Puerto Rico where he was able to acquire a bronze medal, competing in the 5 000m. Forde, who has blossomed into one of Guyana’s leading distance athletes, raced to a time of 14 minutes 8.95 seconds to finish third behind Mexico’s Juan Luis Barrios who won the race, running 13 minutes 44.41 seconds and setting a new games record, while his countryman Juan Carlos Romero (13:56.17) was second.
The 25-year-old Forde also competed in the 1500m but failed to make it into the medal bracket and finished sixth place – a position he said that he’s not too disappointed about based on the training regime prior to leaving Guyana.
His placing in the 5 000 metres is among Guyana’s only three medals at the just concluded games with his fellow Guyanese Aliann Pompey (400m) and Marian Burnett (800m) winning Silver and bronze respectively.
The Junior CAC Games 5 000 and 1 000 metres bronze medallist was for the first time facing more senior competition at the games and said that he was delighted with the outcome.
“It was my first time at the games and I was able to win bronze which is good even though I thought I could have done a bit better based on my time and so on, but I’m happy because training was hard before I left so, winning a bronze means a lot to me,” Forde said.
Speaking with this newspaper yesterday Forde said that the persistent rainfall during the time when he was preparing for the Games forced him to train at some unfamiliar times which were not conducive for the outcome he wanted.
“Well, you can’t always get things the way you want and I had to work with what was given to me … the grass was very high on the track and with the rain, I was forced to do road work like at 12 sometimes, but not complaining, like I said, I’m happy with my results and hoping to do better next time,” Forde added.
Speaking about the competition, the diminutive distance athlete believes that his first-time experience has helped him to realise that the next time around he must be better prepared to combat the high level of competition.
“Looking at my time for example in the 5 000 where I did just a second off my personal best (14:07.08) and I did that time while I was training out of Kenya.
The 5 000m is one of my favourites but I also do the 1500m but again the training was not good for me before I left, but again I’m happy,” Forde said.
Looking ahead, Forde said that he’s hoping to land a place on Guyana’s team for this year’s Commonwealth Games which will take place in India but said that it’s only up to Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) to afford him that opportunity.
In 2006, Forde competed in the 18th staging of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia, but running in the 5 000m, the-then 21-year-old obtained only a 15th place finish with a time of 14 minutes 11.82 seconds.