Jamaica’s 100m sprint queens Elaine Thompson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce left the thousands of patrons at the 41st staging of the Milo Western Relays with huge smiles on their faces on Saturday.

Running together for the first time this season, the two MVP Track Club athletes helped their team set a new record of 43.23 seconds in the women’s 4x100m relay at GC Foster College, the alternative venue for the meet this year.

Both athletes expressed delight at their individual performances, as well as the success they were able to enjoy as a group.

Thompson ran the second leg and exploded down the backstretch after receiving the baton from Shamara Williams, to give her team a commanding lead. Srabandi Nanda maintained the lead and handed off to Fraser-Pryce who looked exquisite in the home stretch, as she took her team to a resounding win.

For Thompson, the result came off the back of some intense sessions ahead of the meet.

“I felt great… we did a lot of baton sessions, so to come out and execute, I felt great and we actually got the victory as well,” she said.

The defending 100m and 200m Olympic champion is looking to pace herself in what is set to be a long season.

“It will be a long season, the World Championships is in the last part of September going into October, (so) my main focus is just to stay healthy each race I get and just to take it step by step and perform the best that I can,” Thompson noted

The 26-year-old was happy the mixed weather did not have an adverse effect on the performance.

“As you know the Milo Western Relays is an annual event for us, even though it’s not in the west this year… it’s a wonderful feeling today even though we had a little rain, plus some sunshine, but it never hampered us from going out there to get our victory,” she stated.

Having been troubled by a toe injury before going off to have her son, Fraser-Pryce is looking forward to running free from injury this season.

“It was our first relay for the year and I am pretty excited that we came around and we were all injury free, and we had a good run. I will continue to train hard and I want to have injury free races each time,” she said.

Fraser-Pryce hopes to be able to continue to perform well on the international stage with her teammate and bring more glory to her country.

“We train in different groups, so coming together to run a relay, at the end of the day it’s about carrying around the stick and also good practice for team Jamaica because I am sure, Elaine and I, God’s willing, will be on the (Jamaican sprint) relay team, so it’s good practice for us as a country.

“I am hoping that come Penn Relays or whenever again we have a relay, we are able to have come good exchanges and run some fast times for Jamaica,” she reasoned.

The world will be taking note of the resurgence of the one-two combination of Thompson and Fraser-Pryce, having already witnessed just how devastating they can be as a duo for the small island nation.