MONTEGO BAY, St James — Herbert Morrison Technical’s Trevoy Smith is very careful not to sound over confident but says he plans to run fast times and medal in the Boys’ Class 1 hurdles events at the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships. The 2025 edition of Champs is scheduled to start on Tuesday at the National Stadium.

Smith, who won the hurdles double at the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Champs at the G C Foster Sports College in mid-February, is hoping to finish his Champs career on a high.

“I’m very confident, not cocky, but confident in my talent and know what I can put out there,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “So I’m ready, I’m ready for the challenge. We [Herbert Morrison] have a very talented group in the hurdles and the standards are very high this year.”

The NACAC Under-18 champion in 2023 and 2024 World Athletics Under-20 Championships representative, insisted he is not going to Champs to make up numbers.

“I would never go to Champs to enter an event where I don’t think I can medal,” Clarke said. “I know that I am going to go out there and perform, not to be cocky or anything, but I am going out there with my A game.”

He will go into the 400m hurdles with the fastest time of any Jamaican schoolboy this year, a personal best 50.82 seconds set at Western Champs. The clocking was a World Under-20 lead at the time. But he is further back in the 110m hurdles in which he is ranked 10th.

Smith was fourth in the 400m hurdles at Champs last year. He was asked what his priority is entering this year’s staging. He responded: “I just want to run fast, really fast and I am sure that will guarantee me a medal at Champs.”

He added: “I want to have fun, I want to enjoy myself, I can’t do any sporting event if I am not enjoying myself and once I am enjoying myself I know that I am gong to perform well and that means Herbert Morrison is going to get some solid points from me.”

The World Athletics Under-20 championships semi-finalist said that while the more gruelling 400m hurdles is his favourite event, the sprint version has aided his development.

“I needed to get more technical [in the 400m hurdles], so I stepped down to the sprint hurdle and I know that I can put out something special in that as well.

“Sometimes hurdlers like myself forget that we need to conserve energy and we tend to float over the hurdles so the sprint helps me to attack each hurdle, so it is a major help.”

Smith, who looks forward to continuing his education and track and field career overseas next year, said focusing on himself at Champs is his first plan. He maintained he is not thinking about “threats” posed by rivals.

He added: “I’m not looking at anyone and I will not call any names. And while I am not calling any names, I will keep my eyes open for one person.”