Olympic sprint hurdler Ronald Forbes will be taking a close eye at the CARIFTA championships this weekend because he is a veteran of five of them.

Yet Forbes, 24, only won his sole medal - a silver in the 400 metres hurdles - in the final championships he entered.

The Games in Grenada in 2000 were his first, then Barbados, followed by Trinidad, then the Bahamas and finally the triumph in Bermuda.

“It was such a relief to get that medal. I failed miserably before, coming fifth all four times,” said Forbes.  

“I knew what it took to win but all the time I could see myself improving but they were nowhere near the times I needed.

“In that final year I went off to college and just ran meet after meet so by the time I went to CARIFTA I was bigger and stronger than I’d ever been and pulled off that second place finished in 2004.

“It was a big relief. Most of Cayman’s CARIFTA team will probably go through two or three Games before they get too old for it.

“I know the feeling when you’re sitting at the closing ceremony sitting on the grass and you see the ones playing outside with their medals on, swinging and blinging. You think: ‘Man, I wonder how that feels?’ You think that year after year, but somehow you never lose hope.

“It’s just for this team to keep their heads up. For them to go through Games one or two and not get a medal should not discourage them. I went through five.

“The medal is not the most important thing. To the public it is, but to the competitors they have to look at it through a time stand point. You’re basically competing against the clock.”

A month ago Forbes overcame a niggling hamstring injury to post a fast time in New York that qualified him for the World Indoor Championships in Qatar soon after in the 60m hurdles.

In the first round the resident of Northside ran a relatively sluggish 7.86 seconds but still got through to the semi-finals. Between Forbes and Eric Campbell (head coach at Florida International University) they tried to rectify the mistakes in the semis but Forbes was slower still and went out.

“I didn’t run too well in the semis but the one thing good from it is that I am still healthy. No reoccurrence of injury on my left hamstring, which is my lead leg.

“The indoors was a short time span but the outdoor season is long, lasting up to October for the Commonwealth Games in India.

“There’s also the CACs in Puerto Rico in July, so I’ll have a lot of time to get ready to do what I have to do.”

Forbes will be competing mostly in meets in Florida to try to get his race sharpness back.