THE LITTLE community of Devon, four miles away from Christiana in Man-chester, erupted yesterday as Olympian Sherone Simpson claimed her first individual medal at the Beijing Games.

Simpson crossed the finish line behind compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser to share silver with another Jamaican, Kerron Stewart. Both Stewart and Simpson finished in 10.98 seconds.

"We were so anxious and a bit nervous ... ," said her stepmother Leonie Simpson, " ... because last year she was suffering from injury. At the starting point, the father was so nervous, him couldn't even look at the TV."

She added: "But it's when him hear me shout now him say something good happening and him look up."

"I wanted her to carry home the gold medal," her grandfather, Wilbert Campbell, said.

"But so long as as she win something, I feel good."

Campbell said he always knew Sherone had the talent because her mother, Viviene, was a good athlete.

"Her mother was a good runner. Yes, man. She run in school, but she never made it big because we was so rural," he said.

The family is planning to celebrate Sherone's achievement when she arrives home.

"I don't know what her father is planning, but we definitely have to do something," her stepmother said.