For Barbados’ queen bee, it’s all about jumping.
She jumped into our hearts with her trademark smile, on to our front pages with her performances, and into the record books through her hard work.
And now, Akela Jones is on the mountaintop. Having dominated all that came before her in 2014, Jones has been voted as the Nation Publishing Company’s Sports Personality of 2014.
The former Springer Memorial student, still a teenager, matured into this country’s top athlete, after winning three gold medals at the CARIFTA Games, earning the Austin Sealy award as the region’s best junior athlete, and then capping it all off by winning a gold in the long jump at the Junior World Championships in Oregon in the United States.
She beat out Commonwealth Games bronze medal winner Shane Brathwaite, West Indies opening batsman Kraigg Brathwaite, tennis star Darian King, and surfing prodigy Chelsea Tuach for the award. (BA)
