Des Moines, Iowa – FIU senior Ronald Forbes won his preliminary heat on Thursday to qualify for tomorrow’s semifinals of the 110 meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Forbes ran a 13.86 against the wind to win the fourth of four prelim heats.  He finished just ahead of Florida’s Kallinka Pitt (13.89) and Southern California’s Kai Kelley (13.90).  The top three runners in each heat, plus the next best four advanced to form the group of 16 runners that will compete in tomorrow’s semifinals, scheduled to take place at 9:05 p.m. (Eastern).  The semifinals will be shown on CBS College Sports Network.

The top three from each semifinal heat plus the next best two will go on to the final, which is to take place Saturday at 5:02 p.m. and will be aired on CBS.

Forbes qualified for nationals after finishing third in the 110 meter hurdles two weeks ago at the NCAA East Regional in Tallahassee.  This is the second trip to the NCAA Championships this year for Forbes, who was named an All-American for his third-place showing in the indoor 60 meter hurdles back in March.

His regional final time of 13.73 was just one-hundredth of a second behind the mark needed for him to book his place on the Cayman Islands Olympic Team for the Beijing Oympics this summer.  Forbes ran a school-record 13.67 back on April 4, but the wind was above the allowable amount for the Olympic qualifying standard.

FIU’s Naim Yisrael took home All-American honors at last season’s NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif., with a fifth-place finish in the women’s 400 meter hurdles.