Dear Editor,

Clifton Forbes was one of those individuals who, great athlete that he was, never paraded his performances which were extensive and in the Olympic Record Books. He ranks as one of Jamaica’s leading athletes who in later years served with distinction on The Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association’s teams and helped other sports as well.

Clifton, the captain of the Jamaican team to the 1968 Mexican Olympics, had his baptism of fire on that occasion. It began at the start when JOA President Sir Herbert McDonald chose to carry the Jamaican flag at the opening ceremony – a practice quite out of tradition. Many of the athletes protested and stayed in the stands. Clifton had to deal with this conflict in the camp and did so with patience and diplomacy.

Clifton broke the 400m Jamaica record and was part of the sprint relay team that broke the world record on two occasions on the same day. Clifton has the distinction of being a member of one of Jamaica’s teams – the only country outside of the USA – that at one time or another held the world record in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

Clifton represented Jamaica in athletics at the highest level between 1965-1979 and was team captain on more than one occasion. He has also served as team manager/coach to various teams and is a certified fitness instructor.

The Mexican performance continued back home when the Machado/Carreras Sports Foundation who would normally have recognised the record-breaking performances of the team ostracised the team in the annual sports award ceremony. It was years later that the Carreras Sports Foundation Board corrected the oversight and gave the team a special award in 2003 for their performance in Mexico.

Clifton is a distinguished alumnus of Kingston Technical High School and subsequently performed with distinction at the University of Nebraska where he earned qualifications in Engineering and Business Administration. In 1974 he was also made Honorary Admiral of the Nebraska Navy (the State’s highest civilian award) and the KTHS Alumni Award in 2001 and 2004. He is survived by his wife Joan and daughter G’Tanya. [naviga:font face=”Verdana, Helvetica, Arial”]

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Dr AW Sangster

Kingston 6