There is ample room for him in the history books and he is grabbing all his pages – even if it’s with just one hand.

Physically, Shane Hudson was different from other children when he was growing up in Moneague, St Ann. He had no right hand, but he had the right mindset. He felt “comfortable” and “perfectly fine”.

Today Hudson sits on four silver medals across World Championships and Para Pan games, and each medal wasn’t as a result of a single tournament. It’s the product of a lifetime of perseverance and grit.

“I’ve always been competing. From age six in school, I am just always running. And everyone always come to watch me because I am always winning; from primary school go right up to high school. And I think when I was 15, one of my teachers told me that I was really talented and I laughed it off. She told me that she was serious, and that’s the time I started taking it serious. I realised that I can really run,” Hudson told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.

“People are not going to believe this, but I have grown with able-bodied people all my life and I never felt uncomfortable until I went around disabled people. They started to say a lot of negative stuff… saying you are acting as if you are better than them. I’ve never ever gotten disrespect from any able-bodied person or feel small around them,” he stressed.

In the early stages of his professional track career, Hudson focused on 100 metres and 200 metres, but because of his disability, he wasn’t able to properly execute in those events.

Scientifically, it has been proven that there is a mechanical benefit to the motion of running with both arms, as swinging them counterbalances the momentum of a person’s legs, providing stability to the runner.

“My start wasn’t great for the 100 metres and 200 metres, so I started doing the 400 metres and realised that it was my event. That’s actually when I started to take the running seriously. The journey has been good, but there have been a lot of struggles. At one point, I felt like I was going to give up. For some reason, I just kept on pushing. In Jamaica, when you’re born with a disability, you’re not going to get the support that you need to get. It was difficult, but I just tell myself that I want it for myself,” Hudson continued.

And he did get it for himself. Hudson has spent the last couple years training for the men’s 400 metres T47 event. According to the Para Athletics classification, athletes are eligible for T45-47 events once their upper limb/s are affected by limb deficiency, if they have impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement.

At the 2011 Para Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, Hudson was second in 49.43 seconds.

“I was like wow! This is really happening. Growing up, I always dream that one day I will represent my country. I never know that it would happen this soon, and for it to happen is like a dream come true,” he said.

“That was my first silver medal and ever since, I’ve been hungry. I said I need more. It was just a different feeling to know that I trained myself and went there and got a medal. I was just really excited. The colour of the medal didn’t matter. I just wanted to get a medal and I went there and got a silver medal. It was just a different feeling. In 2012, I didn’t get to compete. A lot of drama happened in 2013 and I missed out,” Hudson told the Sunday Observer.

Four years later, he bagged another silver medal at the 2015 IPC’s Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar, after running 48.89 seconds. The same year, he finished second again at the Toronto Para Pan American Games.

His most recent feat was at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London, where he won silver in 49.60 seconds.

Running allows him to go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see himself achieve his goals. Nonetheless, before there is any triumph or joy, there is massive workload and painful dedication.

“The training was difficult because you would see other guys doing stuff in the gym and you cannot do it. So, that was a challenge. But I think that for the last few years, I adapted and learned to do a lot of stuff like deadlift. My disabled hand; that is the side I have to strengthen more. I always try to just improvise,” Hudson told the Sunday Observer.

He noted that his first international competition — the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Singapore — changed his perspective. It was a story of narrowly missing the podium and the disappointment lighting a fire within him.

“I didn’t take it seriously. I went there and I competed and made it to the semi-finals. I was disappointed. I remember that when I came back to Jamaica, I told myself that I am not going to anymore games to just go for a plane ride. I told myself that I need to medal. That’s when I started to take things seriously,” he related.

From the get go, there was never any self-doubt. And his confidence became even more bulletproof after encouraging words from retired Jamaican track and field icon Usain Bolt.

“I remember one day I was training and Usain Bolt came up to me and he was like, ‘you’re really fast,’ Hudson said.

“Seriously, you’re really fast,” he said Bolt reiterated.

“I remember that moment and I put it at the back of my head and told myself that I am going to take it seriously. From that, I started training more often. Before that, I didn’t like training. I then realised that I started to win at these development meets in Kingston. I would do like seven, eight miles worth of running every morning. And then in the evening, I would just go on the track and train,” Hudson added.

As for feedback, “My friends and family support me a lot. The feedback is good, but you know that in everything you have the negative talk… people saying I need to stop running because I am not getting anything. But I love to run, so I didn’t listen to the negative energy. I just keep positive and do what I need to do. I love running.”

Hudson tipped his hat to the Jamaica Paralympics Association and its president Christopher Samuda, whom he said has worked assiduously over the years to help disabled people to realise their sporting dreams.

“I think Mr Samuda is doing an excellent job. I will always be grateful because if it wasn’t for Mr Samuda and the other guys, I wouldn’t be living in London. It is because of this why I am living in London… because of the opportunities they gave me to go over the world and run,” he said.

“I went to one of the games, met someone and got married. And now I have been living in London for the last five years. Mr Samuda tries a lot and he has done a lot, but he only can do so much because he is just one person.”