It appears to be a matter of when and not if the national record in the 110m hurdles will go as Jamaica continues to produce world-class sprint hurdlers with each passing season.

The clock is ticking on the record with the forms of Commonwealth Games record holder and the hottest hurdler on the global scene Rasheed Broadbell, and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment to some extent this season.

Broadbell became the third-fastest Jamaican man over the barriers with his personal best 12.99 seconds set in Lausanne, Switzerland, two weeks ago after ending the 2021 season with a best of 13.10 seconds.

It’s not just the male sprint hurdlers who have caught the eyes as the females from the youth level, through the juniors and the seniors have stamped their class, and Britany Anderson’s national record 12.31 seconds at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, confirmed what many pundits had argued, she was the best of a very good group of Jamaican female sprint hurdlers.

On the men’s side, Omar McLeod set the current standard of 12.90 seconds in July 2017 when he was undoubtedly the best male sprint hurdler in the world, winning all major global titles available.

Parchment is the next fastest Jamaican with 12.94 seconds, and despite being four years older than McLeod was expected to be the ‘heir apparent’ as far the record was concerned, but a series of injures over the last three years have conspired to slow him down.

Despite this, Parchment was still able to win the Olympic Games title last year, but for an unfortunate injury while he was taking his warm-ups in Eugene, Oregon, was expected to have won the World Championships and who knows run under 13.00 seconds.

Since then, Parchment has run a season’s best 13.08 seconds, but appears to be holding back and had withdrawn from the final at the Commonwealth Games “out of an abundance of caution” after he had experienced “discomforts” during warm-ups.

If Parchment can rediscover his mental and physical form and the hot streak of Broadbell, who has won five races since he just missed making it to the finals at the World Championships, the national record could be under serious threat.

If the record does survive this season, then fans could be in for a treat next year as no doubt both Parchment and Broadbell will hope to build on this season’s successes and go faster next year.

Hopefully, Olympic bronze medallist Ronald Levy, who has not run since the indoor season, will be back to full fitness, and with the expected improvement of NACAC Open bronze medallist Orlando Bennett, there will be serious competition for spots on the team to the World Championships in Hungary in August 2023.

Despite his struggles, especially over the last two years, it might be premature to write off McLeod who won the World Indoors, Olympics Games and World Championships titles between 2016 and 2017.

McLeod is the only Jamaican with multiple sub-13.00 seconds clockings and has seven of the top 10 times ever run by a Jamaican, and if he can reclaim his form from 2018, he will be right back in the mix.