The Terang karate champion drives to Melbourne every Saturday morning for a one-hour training before coming straight back to the south-west.

And with tournaments back on after a COVID-enforced hiatus, she's determined to make a mark in 2022.

Cole finished second in the Australian Karate Federation's Melbourne Open in the Veteran Woman's Kata class on Sunday, capping a strong return to competition.

"I was happy with how it went but I'm looking to improve as there's another competition, the Australian Karate Federation's state finals, in a fortnight," she said.

"There's a lot of other competitions coming up, COVID-pending. There's the Australian Open in Sydney in April, there's hopefully one with the Australian team in New Caledonia.

"There's another in Perth later in the year too. They're all with the AKF and there's another tournament circuit I do too (so it'll be busy)."

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Cole said she was working to build speed.

"I've got a weight program to build up some more muscles," she said.

"Hopefully it can help me be faster in some moves."

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