Jamaica discovers Usain Bolt's heir in Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville after their performance at the Olympic trials

At the recent Jamaican Olympic trials, fans got to witness Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville's track mastery as the two impressed the fans with their speed. The duo is now looked up as the successors to eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt's legacy.

Bolt has amassed 11 world championship titles, including two silvers, eight Olympic golds, and three Diamond League trophies, in his prolonged track-running career.

Besides that, his 100m and 200m world records of 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin are yet to be broken, even after so many years.

The Jamaican team is now preparing for the Paris Olympics 2024, and for that, their top athletes participated in the ongoing Olympic trials at the National Stadium in Kingston. Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville were two standouts at the trials who left the track and field community in awe with their sub-10 finishes in the 100m events.

Thompson reigned supreme in the finals of the 100m event with a time of 9.77 seconds to become the joint-ninth fastest runner in the history of track and field. He now ranks as the fourth-fastest Jamaican, just behind the likes of Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, and Asafa Powell.

The 22-year-old Thompson defeated Oblique Seville, who finished second with a time of 9.82 seconds and recorded yet another sub-10 finish of his career. Their lightning-fast speed earned them praise from all over the world, as Tim Adams, a journalist at Athletics Weekly, took to his X and called them the 'heir' of Usain Bolt and wrote:

"Jamaica has been crying out for an heir to Usain Bolt and two have now come along at once! In 22-year-old Kishane Thompson and 23-year-old Oblique Seville, the country has two athletes that could easily podium at the Olympics."

What Kishane Thompson had to say about his performance at the trials

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Kishane Thompson is one of Jamaica's most promising track runners. Having won a national championship at the trials, he also clocked the fastest 100-meter time in the last two years and the fastest this year.

The sprinter looked satisfied with his win as he stood for an interview where he said (via BBC):

"My coach instructed me just to run the first 60 metres, nothing more - after that, shut it down. If I came second or third, I would’ve made the team."

Thompson added that his goal was to run the initial 60–70 meters as fast as he could and that he was not there to prove anything.