DESPITE his failure to win a medal for the country at the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Games, Jamaica’s fencing athlete Demario Steele says he was grateful for the opportunity to represent the country in his first senior international competition.

Steele, who is the first Jamaican to represent the country in the sport at the CAC Games, lost all five of his matches on Monday, which resulted in him failing to advance to the semi-finals.

Despite this, the 20-year-old Steele said he valued the experience of competing for Jamaica at the championships, which will propel his career in the future.

“It was a privilege to have represented Jamaica here because I didn’t even know that I was the first male fencer to compete for the country at the CAC Games, and so I am very grateful for that,” Steele told the Jamaica Observer.

“It was a very exciting feeling competing here because it was a great opportunity to test my skills against some of the best fencers in the region and also to see how far I have come from where I started.

“This is my greatest achievement so far in my fencing career because I had to qualify for these games,” Steele stated.

He admitted he did not perform at his best because of nerves.

“I didn’t perform how I wanted to because I had a challenge mentally where, when I get in a competition like this that is very important to me, I focused too much on results and winning instead of enjoying myself,” Steele said.

Steele, who is based in the United States, said he will be training a lot harder because his focus now is to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

“You can expect me to work harder than ever going forward and continue to work on everything that I have been working on — which includes my skills, technique and athleticism — and just continue to improve in the sport,” he said.

“I definitely want to qualify for the Olympic Games next year and so I am going to try my hardest to get there. Jamaica also gave me a scholarship of US$5,000 and so I will be using that to go competitions that can help me to qualify for the Olympics,” Steele said.

Meanwhile, Steele’s Coach Andy Tulleners said his charge has certainly benefited from this experience because the competition was difficult.

“He was in a very [difficult] round of the competition because there were people who are three times there and who are in the top 50 in the world so the competition was extremely high,” said Tulleners.

“However, to have him have the chance to get that experience and fighting through that mental challenge, that is a great opportunity to help [him] to develop and grow,” he said.