When people talk about Jamaican track athletics they are usually focused on the 100 and 200 metres. How could it be otherwise, given the exploits of so many great Jamaican sprint specialists, male and female, down the decades?

That fact explains the comment from 2021 Tokyo Olympics 110m hurdles gold medallist Mr Hansle Parchment that: “I hope we can put hurdling on the map in such a way that it’s a prime event … Once you talk about track and field in Jamaica you want to talk about hurdles and not only about the 100m and 200m…”

In fact, Mr Parchment and fellow Tokyo Olympics standout Mrs Megan Tapper, who won bronze in the women’s 100-metre hurdles in Tokyo — both of whom are patrons for the 2022 Sagicor Sigma Corporate Run — have already played huge roles in etching Jamaican hurdling “on the map”.

Mrs Tapper and Mr Parchment — nominees for sportswoman and sportsman of the year — have excelled, not just as a result of their talent but their immense mental strength.

Since Mrs Tapper is barely over five feet tall, those looking on may wonder at her ability to triumph at the highest level of highly technical, hazardous hurdling.

But when she placed third in Tokyo, the charming, bubbly, 27-year-old became the first Jamaican woman to win an Olympic medal in the 100-metre hurdles.

Several months ago, Mrs Tapper told this newspaper of her admiration for the great Mrs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and of her belief in the latter’s motto that ‘What’s for you, will always be for you; nothing or no one can change that’.

Mrs Tapper also said that she had “always wanted to inspire the young, and especially the old — People who think that their current situations are permanent and there’s no way out”.

Tall and powerfully built, the reserved Mr Parchment appears to be the very opposite of Mrs Tapper. While the latter usually gets off to a flying start in her races, Mr Parchment often struggles to get going over the first 30 metres.

In 2012, when he won bronze in the 110-metre hurdles in London, many felt that with a decent start he would have taken gold.

In the build-up to Tokyo, Mr Parchment struggled with injuries, yet his strong will not only ensured he became physically fit, despite the constraints posed by the novel coronavirus pandemic, but also that he improved his start to such an extent that he shocked the world in Tokyo.

However, while Mr Parchment and Mrs Tapper have done wonders for Jamaican hurdling, they are actually carrying forward a legacy that began long ago.

At Jamaica’s very first Olympic Games in London, 1948, Ms Vinton Beckett and Ms Mavis Evelyn represented Jamaica — a British colony back then — in the women’s 80m hurdles. Mr Sydney Foster represented the country in the men’s 110m hurdles.

Since those earliest days, Jamaican hurdling has soared to dizzying heights, thanks to champions such as Mrs Deon Hemmings-McCatty, Ms Melaine Walker, Mrs Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Ms Danielle Williams, Mr Danny McFarlane, Mr Omar McLeod, and many others too numerous to name here.

On behalf of all Jamaica, we take pride in the knowledge that Mr Parchment, Mrs Tapper, and their peers continue to selflessly light the way for young hurdlers dreaming of glory up ahead.