Melaine Walker celebrates winning the gold in the women's 400-metre hurdles final.

Today we begin to spotlight those who have been nominated to receive the 2008 Gleaner Honour Award early next month. In the category Sports, the nominees are the gold medal winners as representatives of the Jamaican team to the Beijing Games.

Beijing 2008 is by far the most impressive chapter in Jamaica's Olympic track and field history.

A history which began at the London Games in 1948, with Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley announcing the arrival of Jamaica on the world scene with gold and silver in the men's 400 metres, reached a crescendo in 2008 with the country winning eleven medals - six gold, three silver and two bronze - on sports' biggest stage.

Of the 204 competing countries, Jamaica finished 13th overall in all sports in quality of medals won. In track and field, the only sport in which the island won medals, Jamaica was third in quality of medals and fourth in number of medals.

A proud nation has already showered the stars of Beijing with praise and awarded national honours to the outstanding performers. A week of celebrations began with a parade through the streets of Kingston and St Andrew, where the athletes were greeted by thousands of well-wishers.

Individual gold medallists Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown, and relay gold medallist Asafa Powell have been awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander Class). The Order of Distinction (Officer Class) went to 100 metres gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser, 400m hurdles gold medallist Melaine Walker, sprint relay gold medallists Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Dwight Thomas, and veteran hurdlers Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Danny McFarlane.

Star of track

The undoubted star of track and field at the Beijing Games, held in the picturesque Bird's Nest Stadium, was Usain Bolt.

In a week of outstanding track and field competition at the Games, Bolt's achievements were unrivalled. He won three gold medals, two individual and one in the 4x100 metres. All three came in world-record times.

Bolt had entered the Games as the warm favourite for the sprint double. He was, of course, the world record holder for the 100m and the man with the fastest time for the 200m entering the Games. He did not disappoint.

No only did he break his own world record for the 100m, he did so in sensational fashion. His celebrations began 15 metres from the line, yet he still chopped three-hundredths of a second off his own mark, lowering the record to 9.69 seconds.

Overwhelmed by his victory, Bolt could hardly find the words to express his joy.

"You can't explain something like this ... it's a great feeling. I have worked hard, this is what I came here for, and I did exceptionally well. So, now I am just happy with myself," he said.

In the 200m final, Bolt's eighth race in six days, he ran a stunner. On the eve of the event he had promised to leave everything on the track and he did just that. At the line he was 10 metres ahead of the field, clocking an almost unbelievable 19.30 seconds to beat a world record, 19.32, held since 1996 by the great American 200m, 400m runner Michael Johnson. A mark which some said may never be broken was shattered in no uncertain fashion by Bolt.

Smashing record

Jamaica's gold medal-winning relay team of (from left) Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter, Usain Bolt and Michael Frater. - AP photos

With Bolt in such devastating form, a third world record, the men's 4x100 metres, was smashed two days before the Games ended.

At the world level, sprint records are usually broken by hundredths of a second, the Jamaican quartet went under the previous 4x100m mark by an astonishing three-tenths of a second. They clocked 37.10 seconds, well under the 37.40 the Americans first set in 1992 at the Barcelona Games in Spain and equalled a year later at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

It could have been even faster. The baton changes, especially that between Bolt on the third leg and anchorman Powell, were considered conservative.

Michael Frater who ran the second leg summed it up well after the race.

"All we wanted was to get some decent hand-offs then let the chips fall. We were looking for 36 seconds (under 37 seconds)."

Nesta Carter, in his first Olympic Games, led off well, Frater maintained the balance then it was time for Bolt. He blew away his rivals on the third leg before handing over to Asafa Powell. The former world 100m record holder who had disappointed in the individual event needed no second invitation to secure his first Olympic gold medal. Running as if his life depended on it, Powell clocked the fastest ever split on a anchor leg, a mind-blowing 8.70 seconds.

'Firsts' for Bolt

There were a number of 'firsts' for Bolt at the Games. He became the first Jamaican to win the 100m at the Games, the first to take the sprint double, the first to set two individual world records and the first to leave with three gold medals.

The Trelawny-born superstar's supporting cast was just as good. Shelly-Ann Fraser, a virtual unknown before a second-place finish at the National Championships in June, stunned the world and even herself with a brilliant all the way victory in the women's 100 metres final. With that victory she became the first Jamaican woman to win the 100 metres gold at the Games, succeeding where the great Merlene Ottey, Juliet Cuthbert and Veronica Campbell-Brown had fallen short.

Fraser showed herself to be a big-occasion performer. She crossed the line first in all the rounds, including a personal best 10.78 seconds for gold in the final, after leading all the way.

The diminutive Fraser led an unprecedented Jamaican sweep of the medals. She led home Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson, who could not be separated at the line and were both awarded silver medals.

'Pocket rocket'

The fast-starting 'pocket rocket' was always convinced that she would have done well at the Games.

"I worked on the top end of my race and I knew if I got that right I would have a great Olympics," said Fraser, who admitted she had been inspired by Usain Bolt's run the previous night.

Four years after her triumph in Athens, Campbell-Brown did what only one other woman had done. She retained her Olympic 200 metres title.

In one of the great performances of the Games Campbell-Brown led all the way to defeat her fierce American rival, 2007 World Champion Allyson Felix, and compatriot Kerron Stewart, who was third. Her time, 21.74, was a personal best and the third fastest by a Jamaican woman.

Campbell-Brown was very confident going into the Games. According to her, she was in the best shape of her life.

Her coach had suggested a time in the region of 21.7 going into the race but for Campbell-Brown that was secondary. Her mind was on gold.

"I was not thinking about time. I was only thinking about winning," the Arkansas University graduate said.event.

Like Fraser, Walker had been inspired by Bolt's record-breaking performance, his 19.30 200 metres run, on the same night she won gold.

Inspired by bolt

"Bolt, before me, was an inspiration. He was doing so great," she said.

Walker had hoped to break the world record in her event but there was no one to push her to that level.

Like Deon Hemmings in 1996, however, she broke the Olympic mark with a personal best time of 52.64.

Walker, like many of her teammates, had great belief and executed her race plans well.

"I knew I could run 52 seconds. I came out in the heats and the semi-finals and was so relaxed," she said.

Jamaica's gold medallists at Beijing Games

Campbell-Brown

VERONICA CAMPBELL-BROWN

Date of birth: May 15, 1982

Gold medal event: 200m

Personal best: 21.74

SHELLY-ANN FRASER

Date of birth: December 27, 1986

Gold medal event: 100m

Personal best: 10.78 seconds

MELAINE WALKER

Date of birth: January 1, 1983

Gold medal event: 400m hurdles

Personal best: 52.64

USAIN BOLT

Date of birth: August 21, 1986

Gold medal events: 100m, 200m, 4x100m (37.10)

Personal best: 100m (9.69), 200m (19.30)

ASAFA POWELL

Date of birth: November 23, 1982

Gold medal event: 4x100m (37.10)

MICHAEL FRATER

Date of birth: October 6, 1982

Gold medal event: 4x100m

NESTA CARTER

Date of birth: November 10, 1985

Gold medal event: 4x100m