Sports Minister Ms Olivia “Babsy” Grange hit the nail squarely on the head just recently when she described Jamaican sprint great Mrs Elaine Thompson-Herah as “just awesome”.

Ms Grange was reacting to Mrs Thompson-Herah winning the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year award following sensational performances at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan in August.

Readers will recall that Mrs Thompson-Herah was defending her 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics sprint titles in Tokyo — winning Gold medals in the 100 metres in a startling 10.61 seconds and the 200 metres in 21.53 seconds. She then joined teammates, including the great Mrs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, to also capture the women’s 4x100m relay.

It meant that Mrs Thompson-Herah became the first woman to successfully defend the 100m and 200m titles at the Olympic Games. On the male side only fellow Jamaican, the ‘other-worldly’ Mr Usain Bolt has achieved such.

In her first race after Tokyo, Mrs Thompson-Herah left the world of track in shock with her jaw-dropping 10.54 seconds run at Eugene, Oregon. That was the second-fastest time ever run by a woman — just off the 10.49 seconds World Record run by American Ms Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.

No wonder then that Mrs Thompson Herah’s World Athletics award follows a clutch of honours including the Order of Distinction, Commander Class conferred on her by the Jamaican Government; and the North American, Central American, and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) Female Athlete of the Year.

In honouring Mrs Thompson-Herah, the NACAC paid rich tribute to Jamaica for its record in producing champion female sprinters, noting that “Only five women this century have ended a season with the fastest times in both the 100m and 200m … four of those five were Jamaicans.”

Incredibly, Mrs Thompson-Herah’s extraordinary 2021 season followed a period, post-2016, when injuries, most notably a long-standing Achilles tendon problem, threatened to end her career. There were even whispers that she may not have been able to defend her titles in Tokyo.

We suspect her younger years prepared Mrs Thompson-Herah for adversity. Of humble background and a native of remote Banana Ground in eastern Manchester, close to the Clarendon border, Mrs Thompson-Herah is one of many top athletes to have sprung from Jamaica’s mountainous interior.

While her talent was never in doubt, she failed to make an impression at high school. It was after leaving school and joining Mr Stephen Francis’s MVP Track Club that she blossomed, benefiting from the daily hard work which would routinely start before daylight, honing her body to the demands of physical competition at the highest level.

Mrs Thompson-Herah has now moved on from MVP, triggering unease for many.

But among the characteristics she has always shown are iron-like determination and mental strength. Now 29 years old, she has spoken of plans for even greater achievements and we dare not doubt her word.

Her comments to journalists in Banana Ground five years ago at a celebration of her work up to then will echo down the ages: “… I was nobody, but today I am Elaine Thompson doing an interview with you guys…” And further “… everybody can’t be at the top. I had to work from bottom to be at the top…”

We wish Mrs Thompson-Herah all that’s good.