The North American, Central American and Caribbean Area (NACAC) is preening themselves on how successful athletes from the region were at last year’s Tokyo Olympics in Japan.

Those exploits were led by Jamaica’s sprint star Elaine Thompson-Herah, who was the AIPS Best Female Athlete of 2021 and World Female Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021, capping a magnificent year for the sport, NACAC said in a statement from the desk of General Secretary Keith Joseph.

“Thompson-Herah retained her Olympic 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo and added a third gold medal in the 4x100m relay. She also ran world-leading times of 10.54 and 21.53 over 100m and 200m respectively, moving to second on the world all-time list for each discipline,” the federation said.

The Jamaican sprint queen paved the way for 12 other individual champions from the NACAC Area at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021. Among the 12 were USA’s Sydney McLaughlin and Ryan Crouser, who smashed the world records in their respective events.

“McLaughlin, 22, ran a mind-blowing 51.46 in the 400m Hurdles final, in a repeat of another epic battle with her countrywoman and former world record holder, Dalilah Muhammad, who finished a close second in 51.58, well inside the previous world record of 51.90 set by McLaughlin at the Olympic Trials a few months earlier.

“Crouser, who erased the 21-year-old world record in the Shot Put with 23.37m at the USA Olympic Trials in June, capped off his best season ever with the Olympic gold. With all six tosses over 22.50m, he sealed the Olympic title with 23.30m,” NACAC said.

Another superlative performance came in the Decathlon. Canada’s Damian Warner became the fourth man in history to break the 9,000-point barrier en route to the Olympic gold. His effort earned him the Best Sportsperson of the Year title in his country.

Four events signalled the NACAC prowess at Tokyo 2020. Thompson-Herah led a Jamaican sweep in the women’s 100m, joined by two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson.

In the women’s 400m, Bahamas’ gold medallist Shaunae Miller-Uibo was flanked by the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino and USA’s Allyson Felix on the podium. Felix took the individual bronze and 4x400m relay gold, ending a five-Games Olympic campaign with 11 medals. Seven of the eight finalists in the women’s 400m were from the NACAC area.

Three other women completed a medal sweep for NACAC. This feat was achieved in the Women’s 100m Hurdles. The athletes were Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, her country’s first Olympic gold medallist in athletics, USA’s world record holder Kendra Harrison, and Jamaica’s Megan Tapper.