KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s Melaine Walker could be the first woman to successfully defend the Olympic 400m hurdles title.

Walker first captured the Olympic 400m hurdles gold four years ago when she won the event in Beijing in a record 52.64 seconds.

Entering the London Games, Veronica Campbell-Brown was the only Jamaican athlete, male or female, to have won the same Olympic event twice,

However, following yesterday’s triumph, the “Pocket Rocket” Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has joined an elite group, defending her Olympic title as 100m champion.

Walker today begins her quest to join this exclusive group when the 400m hurdles round 1 begin at 1:00pm.

The women’s 400m hurdles event has been held seven times at the Olympic Games and Jamaica is the only National Olympic Committee (NOC) to have won it twice — first with Deon Hemmings then Walker.

Hemmings is the only woman to have won multiple medals in this event (gold in 1996, silver in 2000).

With Kaliese Spencer also being a medal threat in London, Jamaica is set to become the first NOC other than the United States to put two women on the same podium in this event. The USA did it in 1992 and 1996.