Herb McKenley of Jamaica, at his sporting peak more than half a century ago, is still the only athlete to have reached an Olympic track final in all three of the classic sprint events, 100, 200 and 400 metres. His Olympic medal total of one gold and three silver includes losing the 1952 Helsinki Olympic 100-metre title to the American Lindy Remigino in the closest finish yet to that event — a set square was used on the photo finish to determine Remigino had snatched victory by one hundredth of a second.

“Hustling Herb” as McKenley was nicknamed on the American collegiate athletics circuit, was born in Pleasant Valley in the parish of Clarendon, the son of a doctor who wanted him to follow the same profession. But McKenley, inspired by meeting his older compatriot and subsequent Olympic champion, Arthur Wint, was lured to college athletics in the US, eventually coming under the guidance of the Illinois coach Leo Johnson.

By 1947 McKenley had a manager and planned to move to New York. At Berkeley, California, on June 28, he became the first Jamaican to set an athletics world record with 46.3 seconds for 440 yards. By the Olympic season of 1948 he was in such sparkling form for the US Championships that he put together 200m “splits” of 20.9 seconds and 25 seconds to break the 400m world record of 46 seconds by a tenth of a second.

Arriving in London for the Olympics as a passenger on the Queen Elizabeth, McKenley declared: “I have not crossed the Atlantic to lose the 400 metres. No one is going to beat me.” Michael Manley, then a London student but later Prime Minister of Jamaica, reported home: “To talk with him is like being exposed to a high voltage wire crackling incessantly.”

But on August 4, 1948, McKenley, who had already come fourth in the Olympic 200m final, dramatically misjudged his final surge in the 400m final. “At about 50 metres left it seemed like the whole stadium had fallen on me,” he said, “and so victory went, most deservedly, to my Jamaican team-mate Arthur Wint.” That 1948 Olympics ended frustratingly for the Jamaicans when Wint collapsed with cramp in the 4x400m relay.

At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics the world's leading runner over one lap was still Jamaican but team-mate George Rhoden had replaced McKenley as world record holder while McKenley had anaemia diagnosed. Astonishingly, McKenley, who had been entered by Jamaica in all three sprint events, came through with such an extraordinary finish in the final of the 100 metres that he was hailed in the stadium and by commentators as the winner. Then the new champion, US third-string Remigino, came up to say apologetically: “Gosh, Herb, it looks as though I won the darn thing.”

In the 400m final four days later the burly Rhoden led into the home straight and McKenley, much more cautious than four years ago, just failed to catch his team-mate, both being timed in 45.9 seconds.

Few athletes, however, could have bowed out more gloriously from Olympic competition. Les Laing, Wint, McKenley and Rhoden turned out for the Helsinki 4x400m relay against an outstanding US quartet. Fielding the Olympic 400m hurdles champion Charles Moore on the third leg, the Americans began to increase their lead only for McKenley to dig deep and pull past Moore and then hand Rhoden a two-yard lead, for team victory, after a leg timed in an astonishing 44.6 seconds.

That evening the Jamaicans celebrated in their headquarters with American coach Joe Yancey and the young Duke of Edinburgh, taking turns, in the absence of glasses, to drink the Scotch from Yancey's tooth tumbler.

After a time in Australian athletics, McKenley spent many happy years as a coach and manager in Jamaican sport. His cousin, Lorna Boothe, Olympic hurdler and former British team manager, recalled: “Though Herb had a triple heart bypass he continued to give back to the sport so much, especially to youngsters.”

He is survived by his wife, Beverley, and four children.

Herbert McKenley, Olympic athlete and coach, was born on July 10, 1922. He died on November 26, 2007, aged 85