On a sun-baked New Mexico competition field on May 14, 2026, Grenadian javelin thrower Suerena Alexander delivered a career-defining performance that secured her the gold medal at the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships and cemented her place in junior college athletics history.
A native of St David, Grenada, and a product of the St David Catholic Secondary School and the local Track Blazers athletic club, Alexander currently competes as a member of the South Plains College Lady Texans program. She walked into the 2026 national championships as the top-seeded competitor, a ranking she earned through months of consistent, incremental improvement across the 2026 outdoor season.
Alexander’s path to the national title began with a silver medal finish at the 2025 NJCAA Championships, where she notched a 47.62m throw to claim second place. Entering the 2026 season, she opened her competition slate in early April with a 42.81m throw, then steadily built power and technique across subsequent meets. Her breakthrough came at the West Texas Relays, where she hit a new personal best of 49.66m, confirming her status as the athlete to beat heading into the national championships.
True to her pre-championship form, Alexander wasted no time asserting her dominance on the first day of competition. On her very first opening throw, she unleashed a 49.57m effort that would ultimately prove unbeatable for every other competitor in the field. Beyond securing the national title, the throw also broke the 2019 stadium record of 46.35m set by former South Plains athlete Akira Phillip, coming within just 1.07m of the all-time championships record of 50.64m set by Rejoice Agbewodie in 2025.
Alexander’s historic gold is far more than a personal achievement: it underscores the longstanding legacy of elite throwing talent that Grenada has produced for regional and international competitive circuits. She is one of five Grenadian athletes currently competing for South Plains College’s men’s and women’s track programs, joined by compatriots Rayvohn Telesford, Joshem Sylvester, Cheffonia Houston and Kemron Mathlyn at the 2026 championships.
Her early victory on the first day of competition has already delivered a massive morale boost to the full Grenadian contingent competing at the event, setting a high bar for her fellow competitors to follow as the rest of the championships unfold. For the moment, though, the St. David native stands alone at the top of the junior college javelin world, having traveled to New Mexico and returned with a national title and a new stadium record to her name.