Forde's goal is Olympic gold
by Orin Davidson
Stabroek News
May 12, 2002
Many sports stars the world over, have climbed to the top of their disciplines in circumstances identifiable to the popular rags to riches tales.
Guyana's Cleveland Forde may not have yet acquired any material riches from athletics, but his ascension to the top of regional junior long distance running can be likened to a rags to fame success story.
Just one year ago, Forde was eking out a sorry marginal existence in the North West District.
Today he is the new prince of local long distance running and the latest Junior Carifta Games 5000 metres gold medalist.
Since emerging with a surprise win in the Under-17 category of the Millennium one mile road race last year, Forde has improved with astonishing speed, posting personal best times after every victory, to become the best in the English speaking Caribbean.
At the Easter Junior Carifta Games in the Bahamas, Forde became the toast of the championships after a David vs Goliath like performance which stunned many of the spectators at the Thomas Robinson Stadium.
The tiny 16 year-old ran the race of his life to win the event from a field of towering opponents in a driving finish.
"They thought I was only there for the trip and said I was like a baby to them while we were walking out to the starting line," Forde said of his opponents who never imagined they would have needed more than ordinary intimidatory tactics to overcome the quiet soft spoken teenager.
His gold medal winning performance was the lone title for the three-person Guyana team and it culminated a golden period helped by two generous benefactors, in stark contrast to his poverty stricken days in the North West.
One of four children raised solely by his mother Olive, Forde said he always liked athletics but never got the opportunity to compete in any event outside of the odd school race at Port Kaituma Community High.
It was at one of those races he was spotted by pork knocker Esworth Peters who discovered talent in the youngster and began supporting him financially.
He had qualified for the 2000 National Schools Athletics Championships and travelled all the way to Albion in Berbice with the North West team but never reached the starting line because he had no birth certificate.
The youth eventually got his chance in a rare road race staged in the Port Kaituma area and never looked back.
"I went in a 13K (kilometres) race and won second place among big men and it was then he (Peters) decided I should move to Georgetown," said Forde.
They eventually took the long ferry ride to the city, settled in with a friend of Peters and gradually began a training routine at the Georgetown Seawall.
Peters subsequently left the country and Forde was suddenly on his own. Through some assistance from a few helpful athletics people, the youngster got around the rough edges and then made his mark in the Millennium race, his first outside Port Kaituma.
He then met his current manager/coach Leslie Black who organised the race and it signalled the beginning of his rise to fame.
A genuine philanthropist, Black has brought out the best in athletes in the past through his kindness and coaching skills, including former Caribbean Marathon queen Reona Cornette and ex Inter Guianas Games 5000 champion Kelvin Johnson.
Forde though was one youngster with a difference.
Black immediately saw raw talent in the young man, took him in hand and made him part of his family at Section K Campbellville.
But the teenager's lightening rise to glory has nonplussed even the trainer himself.
"He is a great fighter, never gives up and always does as he is told,: stated Black.
Forde's feats to date has taken him to Hungary when he represented Guyana at the World Youth Championships last year.
This year, though is the time he has come into his own.
At the 2002 National School Championships, Forde won three national schools titles in the 2002 championships, following which he won the Carifta Games gold, chopping an astonishing one minute of his previous personal best 5000m time.
Last weekend, Forde continued his amazing run of success by taking a further nine seconds off his PB in battling to fourth place among the best seniors in the region at the Hampton Games in Trinidad and Tobago where he clocked 15 minutes 39.28 seconds in a race won by world ranked Pamenos Ballantyne of St Vincent.
Currently weighing 87 pounds, Forde may be a lightweight in body mass but his performances so far are heavyweight in value.
His goal is to run at the Olympics but he seems sure to acquire much gold on the way.