National 800-metre champion Ricardo Cunningham will be attempting the 400m intermediate hurdles at Jamaica’s Senior Championships with a view of making the Olympics team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this summer.

“Over the years I have been encouraged by many to try the 400m hurdles and I finally decided to give it a try,” Cunningham told the Jamaica Observer, after winning the event at the UWI Invitational in 52.03 seconds.

“Actually it’s my first competitive 400m hurdles [race] for the year and actually it’s my second time ever in my life going over 10 hurdles. So I am happy. It’s a learning phase, I started this season,” Cunningham pointed out.

Cunningham, 36 years old, said he took track and field seriously when he was 23. He has a personal best of 1:47.14 minutes in the 800m event, and is still harbouring thoughts of making the Olympic team in his pet event.

“You can’t just throw a stone behind you like that. I have to see the transition and how things work out first. I can’t throw away the golden egg right now,” said Cunningham.

“I am training for both of them. Anyone gives me the better result so let it be,” said Cunningham, who attended Maud McLeod High School in Westmoreland.

Cunningham captured the national men’s 800m title in 1:47.15 minutes last year, and although he ran his personal best at the time, he was below the qualifying standard of 1:46.00 minutes for the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China.

Jamaica’s 800m national record of 1:45.21 minutes was set 39 years ago by one Seymour Newman in 1977. The long-standing record has led some track and field analysts to say the 800m is in dire straits in Jamaica.

Cunningham has been the standard-bearer for Jamaica in the 800m, winning the national title on a number of occasions.

His rise to prominence is quite remarkable, having fallen in love with athletics in his twenties due to the encouragement of his colleagues in the police force after he dominated their annual sports day championships.

He won almost everything in sight from the 100m, 200m, long jump and the 800 and 1500m events. He later joined the MVP camp.