Cleveland Forde (left) accepts his award from GOA representative Bernice Irving (right) as President KA Juman-Yassin and NSC Chairman Conrad Plummer look on. (Lawrence Fanfair photo)

The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) on Friday evening honoured the 5,000m Pan American Games gold medallist Cleveland Forde at a brief ceremony at Olympic House. The Kenya based athlete thanked all who have been supporting him and said he was proud of his victory.

The talented athlete said winning that event was something he had been trying to achieve for a long time and he was happy finally to reach his goal. Forde broke a 48-year-old national record winning the event in a time of 14:07.08. The Guyanese also won the silver medal in the 1,500m event.

President of the Guyana Olympic Association KA Juman-Yassin congratulated Forde and said that the GOA has been working hard to identify and support young talented athletes. He said that it is heartening when they achieve this type of success.

He pointed out that when the idea for Forde to move to Kenya was raised, it was supported by all the members of the association and it was the GOA that worked hard to ensure that the young athlete would have an opportunity to train in that country. Additionally, the association is also supporting Forde's attendance at an institution of higher learning where he is pursuing study in the area of computer science.

Yassin said that it was difficult to find sponsorship for Forde's training and he thanked Bish Panday for coming forward to support the athlete. Panday, who was also at the ceremony, said that more companies need to come forward and support athletes. He said that there is a tendency for companies to 'jump on board' to give athlethes support when they start winning.