Flashback: Head of Delegation Noel Adonis (left) posses with Cleveland Forde and other athletes and delegates when the Mexican Embassy held a function to celebrate the countdown of 100 days to the PanAm Games earlier this year. Forde has recently indicated that he will not be competing in the event
Head of Guyana’s delegation to the 2011 Pan American Games, Noel Adonis, is of the view that the absence of national long distance champion Cleveland Forde will reduce the country’s chances of winning medals at the event, which will be held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico from October 14 to 30.
“I don’t know what is the reason for him deciding not to compete, but this is a significant blow to our team; because, as you may already know, he (Forde) is one of our most prominent international athletes,” Adonis told Guyana Times International Sport (GTIS) exclusively on Tuesday, October 4th.
Contacted by GTS afterwards, Forde divulged that he withdrew from the Pan Am Games because he felt he was not adequately prepared to compete at that prestigious regional event. Forde said there were not enough competitions held locally to afford him the practice needed to prepare to compete in the 1500m at that event.
Adonis, who is also a vice president of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), said he was very disappointed, since Forde was one of the medal hopefuls for this year’s event. “I think that he was one of the serious medal contenders in the event. He has a pretty good 1500m time, which may have been good enough to win a medal at the event.”
Forde, Guyana’s national 1500m and 5000m national record holder, qualified for the event last year at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi with a blistering new national 1500m record of 3:44.23, to surpass Desmond Hector’s 16-year-old national record of 3:46.08.
When Forde recorded that time, he had competed at a few regional and international events leading up to that event, including the Central American and Caribbean Sport Organisation Games (CACSO) in Puerto Rico, where he copped bronze in the 5000m.
This time around, Forde said, he had not been afforded opportunity to compete in sport meets of similar intensity.
He said that most of the events that were held locally during this time of the year were longer events, such as 10km road races, and those alone were simply not enough to help him prepare to compete in the 1500m at Pan Am.
Forde also said he is still very committed to qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games in London, and that as a member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Track Club, he thinks that he can better be able to explore the possibilities of achieving the qualifying standards.
Apart from Forde, the other track and field athletes who have qualified are Guyana’s three-time Olympian Aliann Pompey, and sensational locally based quarter-miler Winston George. George surprisingly qualified for the event with an astounding performance of 45.86 in the 400m at the ALBA Games in July.
World number 45- ranked Nicolette Fernandes will be the lone squash player representing Guyana at the tournament, while Britany Van Lange and Niall Roberts will compete in the swimming competition. The national Rugby Sevens team, “The Mighty Jaguars”, will also be competing in the event, as will the US-based Taekwondo martial artist Adriann Spellin.
