Mark Jelks
Jelks at the 2010 Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix
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| Nationality |
 United States Nigeria
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| Born | 10 April 1984 | |||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Sprint | |||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| Updated on 26 August 2016. | ||||||||||||||||
Mark Elliott Jelks (born April 10, 1984) is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 100-meter dash. He has a personal best of 9.99 seconds for the event and represented the United States at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. In 2014, Jelks made a change in eligibility in order to represent Nigeria internationally. He represented his new country at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
He also competes in the 60-meter dash and won the national title at the 2009 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a personal record of 6.51 seconds. He received a two-year doping suspension in 2010 after failing to inform the United States Anti-Doping Agency of his location on three occasions.
Born in Gary, Indiana, he competed in track and field from a young age and while studying at Gary's West Side High School he became a four-time high school All-American. In 2005 he qualified for six events at the high school state championships, reaching all the sprint and relay events as well as the long jump. After high school he studied at Texas Christian University then Kansas City Kansas Community College. Rather than take part in collegiate competition, he turned professional in 2005, signing up with Nike.
In his debut professional track season he improved his personal records across the board – he ran 6.63 seconds for the 60-meter dash, 10.02 for the 100 m, and 20.58 seconds for the 200-meter dash. Competing in national events for the first time, he placed fourth in the 60 m at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships and was fifth in the 100 m at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He did not perform as well in 2006, with his season highlight being an appearance in the semi-finals of the 200 m. He placed third at the 2007 Boston Indoor Games in a personal record of 6.60 seconds for the 60 m. He placed fourth in that event at the USA Indoors and after that he ran a season's best of 10.04 seconds in the 100 m heats of the USA Outdoors, before going on to finish fourth. The second and third-place finishers, collegiate sprinters Trindon Holliday and Walter Dix, passed up the chance to run at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and Jelks got the opportunity to compete instead. In his first international appearance, he ended up injured in his first heat in Osaka and came last.
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