Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding has hailed Barbados' achievement of landing their first-ever World Championship medal.

Twenty-year-old Ryan Brathwaite snatched gold in the 110 metres hurdles on Thursday, writing his name into the history books of a nation which had before experienced only sporadic international success in track and field.

"The people of Jamaica join with Barbados in recognising the achievement of hurdler Ryan Brathwaite who won the first IAAF World Championships gold medal for his homeland in Berlin on August 20," Golding said in a congratulatory message.

New national record

In winning gold, the virtually unknown Brathwaite clocked a new national record of 13.14 seconds as he narrowly edged out the American duo of Terrence Trammell and David Payne in an exciting photo finish.

In fact, he was forced to wait several anxious minutes before he was declared the winner by 100th of a second.

Prior to Brathwaite's feat, Barbados had only claimed one medal at a major international meet when Obadele Thompson won bronze in the 100 metres at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.