World Championships 400-metre relay gold medallist, Novlene Williams Mills, was among four sports personality who were bestowed with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer (OD) at the National Honours and Awards Ceremony at King’s House yesterday.

The track and field star was joined by former president of Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Lyndel Wright; Carvel Stewart, chairman of Harbour View Football Club and vice-chairman of the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) and FIFA referee instructor Peter Prendergast on being conferred the honour for rendering outstanding and important service to Jamaica.

“I feel really honoured and blessed to be among all these people that have received awards and for me to be an athlete and getting an award of this calibre I am really honoured.

“This means so much to me because alot of people in different sports and different things that they do in life have done so much for Jamaica and they have not received this award. So for me it is such a big honour and I am really happy,” an elated Williams-Mills told journalists after receiving the award.

The 33-year-old was also on Thursday presented the prestigious Courtney Walsh Award for Excellence in Sports which recognises a sportsman or woman who has a history of outstanding achievements; demonstrates a spirit of sporting goodwill and national pride; is a model of sporting endeavour; and displays appropriate deportment and a high level of discipline and integrity within and outside the sports arena.

Williams-Mills, the 400-metre specialist was chosen from a field of four shortlisted nominees, including chess champion, Warren Elliot; national netballer, Sasher-Gaye Henry; and national footballer, Rodolph Austin.

“I am really excited; really happy that all these awards have been awarded to me, because I have worked so hard for all these years and for them to recognise and say that ‘she deserves this because she has done so much for our country and we are so proud of her’, I am really honoured,” she said.

The athlete, who hails from Gravel Hill in St Ann, has kept Jamaica’s name at the forefront of international competition with a slew of outstanding performances over a decade.

A four-time national 400-metre champion, Williams-Mills has also tasted success at the highest level in her sport. She is a three-time Olympic 4×400 metres relay bronze medallist in Athens, 2004; Beijing, 2008 and London, 2012.

In 2014, she won her second individual medal — a silver — at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, adding to the bronze she attained in Melbourne, Australia, in 2006.

Williams-Mills has also won the International Association of Athletics Federations Diamond League title on multiple occasions, including last year, which earned her automatic qualification to the World

Championships in Beijing earlier this year.

Williams-Mills, who was diagnosed with cancer in June 2012, showed tremendous courage to win the 400m at Jamaica’s National Senior Championship in 50.60 seconds just a few days after being told of her condition.

A month later, she went to the London Olympics and placed fifth before winning a bronze on the 4x400m relay team. She then had surgery after the London Games.

After closing her season with a well-timed anchor leg run to hand Jamaica gold over rivals United States in the 400-metre relay at the recent World Championships, Williams-Mills explained that she is not yet in preparation mode for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

She quickly added, however, that she is keen on resuming preparations in coming weeks on return to her Florida base today.

“First of all one thing for me is always making the Jamaica team; we can say what we are going to the Olympics to do, but first of all you have to make it to the Jamaica team. So I am always looking forward to making the team in the individual 400 and do what I have to do,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“I haven’t started training as yet; I have been on a little break since I have all this going on, so I will be heading back tomorrow (today), so in a next week or two, I will get back to training.

“Novlene is always going to prepare to the best that she knows how to and is always going to come out and compete, so everything will be left to how I do when I come out and compete,” she said.

The vivacious athlete was vibrant in her response as it relates to her health, and also used the opportunity to reach out to her supporters.

“I feel pretty good; I still got some check-ups coming up, so we are going to go in and go back to re-evaluate and make sure I am still good going into competition. But I feel pretty good,” she noted.

“To my fans, thank you for always believing in me, always cheering for me, always being my fans and supporting me,” she ended.

— Additional reporting by Garfield Robinson