Olympics and World Championships representative Danniel Thomas on Saturday smashed the 13-year-old Jamaican women’s shot put record held by Kimberly Barrett since 2004 when she threw 18.49m to win the event at the Ashland University Alumni Open in Ohio, USA.

The distance broke the previous national record — 18.28m set in Gainesville, Florida, on May 29, 2004 — by 21 centimetres and smashed her previous personal best of 18.13m set earlier this month in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, moving her up to fifth on the International Association of Athletics Federations rankings tables for this year.Thomas, the former Frome Technical and Edwin Allen High standout, who is a fifth- year senior at Kent State in Ohio, is having the best season of her career as she added the outdoors record to the indoors record she broke twice this year.On Saturday she surpassed the old mark twice as she first threw 18.32m on her second attempt, then went further on her final attempt with the 18.49m throw.In February this year, she threw 18.32m to break Barrett’s Indoors record of 18.19m set in 2005, then returned in March to improve on the record with 18.40m at the NCAA Division One Indoors Nationals at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.This was the second time this week that a female national throws record was being broken, after Florida State University senior Kellion Knibb broke the discus throw record for the second time in a week winning at Penn Relays with 62.07m.— Paul Reid