Cole at peace without sprinting

You will not see Edwin Allen's Serena Cole line up for individual sprint events at this year's ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs).

She says that it is a decision that she is at peace with, channelling her focus towards defending her Class One Long Jump title as well as taking a chance on the Class One Triple Jump this year.

Cole has the 10th fastest time in Class One 100m this year with 11.51 seconds, which she set earlier this month at the Carifta Trials, coming third in an Edwin Allen sweep that involved the Clayton twins Tia and Tina.

Tina and Tia have two of the top three fastest times in Class One this year with times of 11.26 seconds and 11.35 seconds, respectively. Although a great sprinter in her own right, Cole says that the strong field gives her confidence to focus on her strengths in the field events.

"The sprint part about it is that Edwin Allen has a lot of great sprinters in Class One so it doesn't matter if I do it," Cole told STAR Sports. "I know that my teammates will do their best in the sprinting. So I have to go out there and do my best in the long jump and the triple jump."

Cole will make her Champs debut in the Class One Triple Jump, an event that she didn't expect to be competitive in at the start of the campaign. It was with some experimentation in training.

"I enjoy doing the event for some reason," she said. "Sometimes I feel I'd rather it over the long jump. I came to training one day and my coach said I should try and do it and I enjoyed doing the event. So probably I'll do my best at Champs, hoping for a gold medal," Cole said.

Cole has the fourth-longest distance in the event this season with her 12.00m jump at the Central Champs on March 15. However, she still leads the way in the long jump with 5.99m which she set at the Carifta Trials. Cole says that she is not getting complacent in her goal of winning back-to-back long jump titles. For the triple jump, Cole says that she is approaching it with an open mind.

"Going into the triple jump, there is a little bit of pressure because athletes are doing it long before me. But I'm just going out there to do my best. Hopefully, my best is good enough for the team."