Grenada have declared a half-day holiday to celebrate the achievement of Kirani James, who won gold in the men's 400m final last night.

It was Grenada's first ever Olympic medal and the prime minister felt the achievement was worthy of giving the island Tuesday afternoon off work.

"This is a fantastic achievement," Richard Simon, the prime minister Tillman Thomas's press secretary, told Reuters.

"This has basically given Grenada a sense of presence in the international community that we didn't have before in the context of world athletics."

"It's an early carnival for us. It's going to be a culmination basically of three or four days of celebration for Kirani's involvement in the Olympics. It's a huge party."

All three medals in the 400m went to athletes from the Caribbean islands.