She Is Who We Thought She Was: Tia Jones Beats Elite Hurdles Field at Drake

By David Woods for DyeStat

Photo by Lily Dozier

DES MOINES, Iowa – In nine global championships since 2011, seven American women have collected 12 of the 27 medals in the 100-meter hurdles. None were named Tia Jones.

In the deepest invitational field Saturday at the 113th Drake Relays, there were three world champions and one world silver medalist in the 100-meter hurdles. None were named Tia Jones.

Jones, 22, beat all of her older and more decorated rivals at Drake Stadium.

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“They tend to forget little old me,” she said. “I just gotta do what I gotta do. Get on the track, get off the track.

“Next meet.”

Next meet? How about next podium?

Jones, a one-time high school superstar from Marietta, Ga., reminded everyone who she is. She decisively won the invitational hurdles in 12.44 (+1.1), finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of the field to repeat as Drake Relays champion.

Despite conditions – rain and temperatures in the 50s (“freezing cold,” Jones said) – she climbed to No. 2 in the world this year behind the collegiate record of 12.36 by Kentucky’s Masai Russell at the Texas Relays on April 1.

First-place prize money was $10,000.

Tonea Marshall was second in 12.61, followed by world champions Nia Ali (12.67) and Tobi Amusan of Nigeria (12.69). The Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton was fifth in 12.71 and the third world champ, Jamaica’s Danielle Williams, sixth in 12.99.

Jones set a national high school record of 12.84 as a 15-year-old in 2016. She won an under-20 world bronze medal that year, gold in 2018, and three New Balance Nationals titles.

Then she went pro.

She conceded she lacked infrastructure of a college program, but that didn’t impede progress as much as a ruptured Achilles in 2020. Then came the pandemic.

World Athletics lists three meets for her in 2021, all in May. In 2022, she was fifth at the USATF Championships and second in two September races – at Brussels (12.38 PB) and Zurich (12.40) – in the Diamond League.

“Last season was my first season where I could show what I could do,” Jones said. “I’m back, and I’m healthy.”

Amusan was seventh at the Drake Relays last year, so she might be ahead of schedule. She set a spectacular world record of 12.12 in a semifinal at World Championships, then took gold with a wind-aided 12.06 (+2.5) at Eugene, Ore.

She is coming off a 100m PB of 11.10 two weeks ago at Gainesville, Fla.

“I’m healthy, I’m happy. That’s all that matters,” Amusan said. “Execute when it matters.”

She will get no argument from Jones, irrespective of how satisfying this victory was.

She was last on a global podium in July 2018 at Tampere, Finland, for U20 worlds. Now she can aim for making the U.S. team heading to August’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

“It really matters what you do when it matters,” Jones said. “So the beginning of the season doesn’t always matter. It’s always great to run low times at the beginning of the season. But I’ve always been confident with track and field.

“This is my passion. This is what I do for a living.”

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.