MANHATTAN — The sight of a heptathlete slowing to a walk in her final event, the 800-meter, is startling.
Assumptions are immediately made. The fuel tank is empty. An injury is too debilitating. Pressure is insurmountable.
An accumulation of all those factors could have affected Akela Jones to the point she quit running in the closing event of the heptathlon contested at the NCAA Championships earlier this month.
Nonetheless, Kansas State’s senior standout from Barbados would rather dwell on what ran through her mind during that breakdown rather than what kept her from running.
“It was just one of those moments where I felt like I needed to take a moment to myself,” Jones said.