Jessica Lewis has claimed a remarkable hat-trick after winning gold in the T53 100 metres at the Parapan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.

The pressure was on Lewis, who was defending the title she won in both Toronto in 2015 and Lima in 2019, but the nerves didn’t show as she blitzed to victory in 16.71 sec, smashing her own Parapan Am Games record of 17.36sec.

Lewis was in another class to her rivals, beating runner-up Chelsea Stein, of the United States, by 1.84sec, and the thrill of winning gold remains just as strong for the Bermudian eight years after her first win.

“I crossed that line and was like, ‘wow, this is happening again,’” Lewis said.

“Right now I still can’t believe that it has happened and I’m just so thankful my body is healthy and I’ve been able to continue to train and compete at this level. Just watching the Bermuda flag rise at the medal ceremony is incredible and I had a few tears while I was up there as it’s absolutely special each and every time.”

The sprinter’s medal is Bermuda’s second of the Games after Yushae DeSilva-Andrade won silver in boccia and Lewis admitted to feeling the nerves on the start line.

“I’m feeling pretty great right now but I was definitely very nervous going into it,” she said.

“I just felt there was a lot of pressure going in as I won it in Lima. I’ve made some huge changes, so I was just going into this focusing on the aspects of the race that we’ve been working on and seeing where it takes us.

I’m very excited with the result and was really hoping to be under that 17.3 here, so it’s awesome to be able to break the record and break it by that much.”

Since her win in Lima in 2019, Lewis has changed coaches while just this year she has made dramatic alterations to her position in the chair, and she is delighted with the improvement she has made.

“When I was just watching the race video back, my stroke looks so much smoother than when I was in my old position, so I’m really looking forward to working a lot more in this position,” Lewis said.

“My new coach, Geoff [Harris], is absolutely phenomonal and I am just so grateful that he’s coaching me from a different country. It’s just amazing.”

Lewis also competed in the 400 and 800 metres in Santiago, but her category of T53 was combined with T54, giving her a tougher task.

“Para sport has classification for a reason so that you do compete against people of your same ability level,” Lewis said.

“It was nice to have the challenge to compete with them, but it’s definitely a lot tougher for us as T54s should always be a little faster, so I’m just so glad the 100 metres was just a T53 event.

“However, the time that I raced would have actually put me in with a silver medal in the T54 100 metres, so it’s still cool to know that I would have medalled even if the event was combined.”

Lewis has little to time to bask in the glory of another victory as her focus will almost immediately switch to qualifying for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.

“I still have a few more opportunities to qualify,” she said.

“I just missed out on a spot this summer but there are still a few different opportunities for me to get a qualification spot so we are going to head back after these Games and really hunker down and have a little more of our base-season training and then we’ll switch to more of the specifics.”