Britany Anderson has established herself as one of the de facto leaders of the Jamaican women’s 100m hurdles crew, one of the deepest and best in the world, but came close to not making it to the Olympics at last weekend’s Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association Ministry of Sports/Supreme Ventures National Senior Championships at the National Stadium.

Anderson, who holds the Junior World Record at 12.71 seconds and is the third-best Jamaican-ever at the Under-18 age group behind Ackera Nugent and Yanique Thompson, was third in the final on Sunday’s last day of the championships and was still stunned 15 minutes later that she had made her first Olympic team.

“This is my first Olympics, my first Olympic Trials,” the 21-year-old Florida-based athlete told the Jamaica Observer. “I am feeling over excited, I really still can’t believe that I made the team, I just want to thank God because if it wasn’t for Him I wouldn’t be here now.”

Anderson, who ran her personal best 12.58 seconds, sixth-best ever by a Jamaican, is part of an awesome threesome that includes national record holder Danielle Williams, who finished a cruel fourth on Sunday, and Janeek Brown, who has not competed in the hurdles this year.

Others with world-class potential who could be added to this list are 19-year-old Ackera Nugent, Daszay Freeman and national champion Megan Tapper.

Anderson, who was controversially given second place in the 100m hurdles final at the 2018 World Under-20 Championships in Finland, was not pleased with her execution on Sunday however, and described her race as “it was something else”.

She was pleased that she managed to maintain her composure and get back into the race later and grabbed third ahead of the very experienced Williams, who missed out on yet another Olympic berth.

Anderson knows what she has to do to be competitive come the Olympics. “I will just need to focus on my start from now.”