Akela Jones

Akela Jones

Akela Jones in 2016
Personal information
Born	(1995-04-22) 22 April 1995 (age 21) Saint Michael, Barbados
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	77 kg (170 lb)
Sport
Country	Barbados
Event(s)	Heptathlon High jump Long jump
College team	Oklahoma Baptist Bison Kansas State Wildcats
Coached by	Cliff Rovelto
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Heptathlon: 6371w/6303 NR (2015) Long jump: 6.80i NR (2016) High jump: 1.98 NR (2015) 100 m hurdles: 13.00 (2016) Pentathlon: 4402i NR (2015)
Medal record World Junior Championships 2014 Eugene Long jump Pan American Games 2015 Toronto High jump NACAC U23 2016 San Salvador Long jump 2016 San Salvador High jump 2016 San Salvador 100 m hurdles
Updated on 26 July 2015.

Akela Jones (born 22 April 1995) is a Barbadian track and field athlete who holds Barbadian records in the women's heptathlon, pentathlon, long jump and high jump. She won gold in the long jump at the 2014 World Junior Championships. In 2015, she was NCAA champion in the heptathlon and won bronze in the high jump at the Pan American Games.

Jones first competed in the CARIFTA Games as a 12-year-old in 2008, winning silver in the under-17 girls' high jump with a jump of 1.71 m. On 20 March 2009 Jones cleared 1.81 m in Bridgetown; as of July 2015^[update], this remains the age 13 world best. At the 2009 CARIFTA Games she repeated her silver from the previous year, clearing 1.80 m to equal the championship record but losing to Jamaica's Petergaye Reid on countback. Jones won her first CARIFTA Games gold medal in 2010, clearing a championship record 1.85 m in the high jump; additionally, she won silver with the Barbadian team in the 4 × 100 metres relay. Later that spring, she became the first Barbadian to win a high school event at the Penn Relays, winning the girls' high jump with 1.81 m.

Jones set a national youth and junior record in the women's long jump, 6.18 m, at the 2011 Barbadian CARIFTA Trials. She won two gold medals at the 2011 CARIFTA Games, winning both the high jump (1.75 m) and the long jump (5.66 m). She was selected for her first global meet, the 2011 World Youth Championships in Lille, as a long jumper; jumping 6.10 m in the qualification and 6.04 m in the final, she placed sixth.