Driven on by the success of Jamaica at the 2008 Summer Olympics, he competed extensively in the 2009 outdoor season. He was fifth at the Jamaican Championships and took the 100 m silver medal at the 2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics with a significant personal best of 10.08 seconds. He also led off the Jamaican relay team which finished as runners-up. He was selected as a first heat relay runner at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and received a gold medal as the Jamaican quartet went on to win the title. He competed at a number of smaller meets in the European circuit before going on to set a personal best time of 9.99 seconds at the Weltklasse Zürich in August, becoming the 70th man to have broken the 10-second barrier with an official, legal time. Following this he set a meeting record at Rovereto, Italy, recording 10.11 seconds into a headwind to beat Asafa Powell's previous meet best.