THE IAAF World Championships was a learning experience for mile relay bronze medallist Leford Green, and he is expecting it to set him up for life as a professional athlete.

After running a season best 49.03 seconds to win the 400m title at the Central American and Caribbean Senior championships in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico in July, the former Kingston College and Johnson C Smith University athlete advanced to the semi-finals of his pet event at the 13th IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea before anchoring the Jamaica team to their first 4x400m relay medal since 2005 in Helsinki, Finland.

Green ran 49.45 seconds in first round for fourth in his heat in Daegu and advanced to the semi-finals where he ran 49.29 seconds and failed to advance.

The back-to-back Central American Games and Central American Senior Championships 400m hurdles gold medallist recently turned professional, signing with global sporting goods giant Adidas and will stay with coach Lennox Graham who has guided him since high school and all four years at Johnson C Smith University.

US-based agent Qubie Segobin who also manages newly crowned IAAF World Championships 100m champion Yohan Blake will be his manager.

Green who completed his studies in Information Systems Engineering at Johnson C Smith earlier this year told the Observer in an interview this week that his experience in Daegu was a positive one and he hoped to build on it.

“The World Champs experience was wonderful because I now know what is required of me to make it to the big eight (final) in a championship. Plus, I also achieved my first ‘Worlds’ medal, so it was a wonderful experience,” he said.

Green, a former NCAA Division Two Indoor Athlete of the Year, was verbally mauled by a local television commentator Saturday night for not holding on for the gold despite getting a lead on the anchor leg of the mile relay.

But his response was: “There is nothing that I would want to do over. Everything that happened is all a part of my learning experience and I believe that the Lord has something planned for me.”

“I’m waiting on ‘my time to shine’ like Laden,” he said, quoting one of his favourite reggae artistes.

Green, who has a personal best of 48.47 seconds in the 400m hurdles, won the 400m hurdles title at the JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Senior Trials and came second in the 400m behind Riker Hylton, said his decision to go professional was the right one to do right now: “I decided to make that move because it was the right time. I have graduated from college and I’m running well,” he explained.

He acknowledged that he was new to the professional circuit and as such “I really want to adjust to that life as soon as possible and I just pray to the Lord to keep me injury-free and I will be able to perform to the best of my ability.”

After the World Championships, Green said, he would sit with his coach and manager to plot the way forward. “Myself, coach and my agent are all trying to work out what would be best for me right now seeing that it has been a long year, from college running and also graduating from college, so I’m not 100 per cent sure.”