Jamaican athletes set four national records in track and field at the recent Olympic Games held in Tokyo, Japan. Elaine Thompson-Herah, who retained her sprint double titles from Rio five years ago, was involved in three of the new marks.

In addition, there were eight personal bests performances, two equalled and 10 season’s bests.

Thompson-Herah shone brightly as she stunned the field after running 10.61 seconds to win the 100m, breaking the national record 10.63 seconds set in June.

The time also erased the Olympic record set 33 years ago in 1988 by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner and was the second-fastest ever.

Thompson-Herah wrote her name in the history books when she retained the 200m, the first time it was being done in the Olympics, running 21.53 seconds. It was faster than Merlene Ottey’s 21.64 seconds set in 1991, a year before Thompson-Herah was born. Also, it was the second-best ever, behind Griffith-Joyner’s 21.34 seconds set at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

She had equalled her previous personal best 21.66 second set in 2015 at the World Championships in Beijing, China, then completed the full set of gold medals, teaming with Briana Williams, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson to win the 4x100m relay gold in 41.02 seconds, breaking the 41.07 seconds set in Beijing in 2015.

The team of William, Natasha Morrison, Remona Burchell and Jackson had run a season’s best 42.15 in the preliminary rounds.

The other national record came in the relatively new Mixed 4x400m relays when the team of Sean Bailey, Junelle Bromfield, Stacey-Ann Williams, Karayme Bartley ran a new national record 3:11.76 minutes in the semi-finals, lowering the 3:11.78 minutes set at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in 2019.

Megan Tapper, who won a historic bonze medal in the 100m hurdles, ran a personal best 12.53 seconds in the preliminaries while finalist Britany Anderson became the third-fastest Jamaican ever when she ran 12.40 seconds in the semi-finals.

Jackson, who took home three medals, lowered her 100m personal best, clocking 10.76 seconds for third place in the final, under the 10.77 seconds she had run in the semi-finals at the Jamaican Championships in late June.

Christopher Taylor, who was the first Jamaican man in the 400m final since the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, ran a personal best 44.79 seconds for sixth place in the final.

Earlier, he had run a season’s best 44.92 seconds in the semis, while his teammate Demish Gaye equalled his season’s best of 45.09 seconds in the semis but failed to advance to the final.

Shawn Rowe, who ran a season best 49.18 seconds in the first round of the men’s 400m hurdles, clocked a personal best 48.83 seconds in the semi-finals while Janieve Russell clocked her lifetime best 53.08 seconds in the women’s 400m hurdles final.

Two of the three female quarter-milers also lowered their personal bests in the semi-finals. Stephenie Ann McPherson ran 49.34 seconds, the third-best ever by a Jamaican and just off the national record 49.30 seconds held by Lorraine Fenton in 2002. Candice McLeod ran 49.51 seconds, making her the fifth-fastest Jamaican female ever.

Sprinter Oblique Seville, who was attending his first senior championships, equalled his 100m personal best 10.04 seconds in the first round but failed to get past the semi-finals.

Men’s 110m hurdles gold medallist Hansle Parchment ran a season’s best 13.04 seconds in the final to become the second Jamaican man to win the event after Omar McLeod.

Chad Wright threw a season’s best 62.93m in the prelims of the men’s discus throw to advance to the final while Rasheed Dwyer clocked a season’s best 20.13 in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m.

Three other relay teams produced season’s best performances. The men’s 4x100m team of Jhevaughn Minzie, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake and Seville, led the qualifying with 37.82 seconds.

The women’s 4x400m team ran 3:21.24 minutes for third place in the final with the team of Roneisha McGregor, Russell, Jackson and McLeod after they had run 3:21.95 minutes in the semis with the team of Junell Bromfield, McGregor, Russell and Stacey-Ann Williams.

The Men’s 4x400m Relay team ran 2:58.76 minutes in the final with the team of Gaye, Taylor, Jaheel Hyde and Nathon Allen after the had run 2:59.29 minutes in the semis with the team of Gaye, Hyde, Karayme Bartley and Allen.