Jamaica is sweetly sitting at the top of the overall medal tally in track and field at the Beijing Olympic Games, after it clinched another gold and a bronze medal yesterday, following the women's 200 metres final in the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, China.

The country has moved up eight places in the overall Olympic medal standings since Tuesday, taking 12th position yesterday after whopping medal hauls Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gold tally boosted

Up to Tuesday, Jamaica was ranked 20th, based on the overall quality of its medals, with two gold and two silver. That changed after Usain Bolt, Melaine Walker and Veronica Campbell-Brown all won gold in their respective events to boost Jamaica's gold medal tally to five.

Jamaica's performance in the Beijing Olympics surpasses, by far, its performance in the Athens Olympics of 2004, where the country was ranked 34th at the end of the Games with five medals - two gold, one silver and two bronze.

The country's position could move up another place or two in the overall Olympic standings if the Jamaicans make a clean sweep of the men's and women's 4x100-metre relays this morning.

China leads in the overall medal standings with 45 gold medals, 14 silver and 20 bronze. The United States follows with 26 gold, 28 silver and 28 bronze, though they lead in total medals.

Great Britain follows a far third behind the US and China with 16 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze.