Hundreds bid farewell to Olympian Forbes

HUNDREDS of relatives, friends, members of the sporting fraternity and other well-wishers swelled the St Andrew Parish Church yesterday to bid final farewell to Jamaican Olympian Clifton Forbes.

Forbes, who was the captain of the Jamaican team to the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games and who competed in all three sprints (100, 200 and 400 metres), passed away on March 1 after a long illness. He was 65.

Yesterday his daughter G'Tanya brought the congregation to tears as she read a tribute to her father.

"It is difficult to accept the emptiness you feel within. It is difficult to find these words, to stand here, growing without his shoulder to lean on, to rest my cheek against his, to feel his beard against my forehead," she said, her voice cracking after each statement.

"My first memory of Dad is watching him and Mom laying newspaper pages on the floor as water flooded in during Hurricane Gilbert. I remember sitting in the cold, damp couch feeling so safe and warm," she added.

"Daddy was warm, patient; he was kindness and humility. He was a fellow student, worker, athlete, trainer, brother, friend, and to Mom and me, he was love," she added as mother Joan wiped tears from her eyes.

Among the sports figures in attendance were fellow Olympians Lyndie Headley, Ray Harvey, Michael Fray, Vinton Powell and Neville Myton.

Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) president Mike Fennell recounted Headley's contribution to the Jamaican Olympic team and to the University of Nebraska, where he was a mentor to young Jamaicans on scholarships in the USA.

"Prior to 1970 when Cliff started recruiting for Nebraska, a total of 12 Jamaicans had been... on a track scholarship. Through the years, a total of 27 Jamaicans had gone to Nebraska on track scholarships, the majority of whom had been either recruited by Cliff, or with whom he was influential in their recruitment," Headley said.

"This is an area in which very few persons knew that Clifton had done such an outstanding job. Even Merlene Ottey's tenure as a graduate of the University of Nebraska in 1980 was influenced by Cliff," said Fennell.

Forbes represented Jamaica in athletics between 1965 and 1979. He was denied his moment of fame when during the Mexico Olympics, then JOA head Sir Herbert McDonald insisted on carrying the Jamaican flag during the Opening Ceremony, contrary to traditional practice.

The decision resulted in the boycott of the ceremony by members of the team. He, however, went on to break the national 400m record and was part of the sprint relay team that broke the world record on two occasions on the same day.

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