A roar went up inside the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, among the press corp, when Rasheed Broadbell stopped the clock in a world-leading 13.15 seconds in the men’s 110m hurdles at the Velocity Fest 9 on Saturday.

Racing against his MVP teammate and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion Ronald Levy as well as Orlando Bennett, who represented Jamaica at the World Championships in 2019, Broadbell put together a well-executed race to register an Olympic qualifying mark, just a week after faltering badly at the Inaugural Miramar Invitational Meet in Florida.

Clearly delighted with his performance in the early morning sunshine in Kingston, the former St Jago High School standout was at a loss for words to describe how it felt to register his new personal best time. He, however, credited proper execution for the fast time.

“I really don’t have any words right now, it’s just a lot of things going through my mind. I am grateful for the time and [running] an injury-free race. I think I executed [the race] properly this time.”

It was clear that Broadbell had learnt from his mistakes very quickly as he pointed out in his post-race interview.

“I wasn’t floating at the first three hurdles like the last race and I think I did well, I executed coming straight down.”

The 110m hurdles bronze medallist at “Champs” 2019 believes that more is left in the tank to lower his time even further this season.

“Based on where I am at training, I think I can [go faster]. On the day, expect great things.”

Broadbell is also grateful to have Levy to train with, as it provides him with the motivation he needs on a daily basis and especially on race day.

“He is my teammate, we have the rivalry in training, so it’s just proper execution today. Each race I get I see if I can lower my time and on the day we see how it goes.”

His exploits at the high school level had left him confident of being able to make the transition to the senior ranks.

“When I was running at the Class One height [high school] I did it before, so I thought if I did the proper training and get stronger I could do it over the higher height and go even faster.”

Buoyed by the fast time Broadbell will now be focusing on what is required to be ready to perform as well or even better at the National Championships later this year.

“Me and my coach have been working on stuff. I think we’ll get it right, on the right day. Well now it will be just me and the coach going back to the drawing board, reviewing the race, seeing what needs to be corrected and we will be ready for the championship.”

Broadbell was only able to enjoy the world lead for a few hours as American Indoor World record holder Grant Holloway lowered the world-lead even further to 13.07 seconds at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational.