Anna Hall (athlete)


Anna Hall (athlete)


Anna Hall (born 23 March 2001) is an American athlete specializing in the combined events. She won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the 2023 World Championships and the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships. Hall is the North American indoor record holder for the pentathlon.

Her heptathlon and pentathlon best scores place her fifth and fourth on the respective world all-time lists. She is the only woman to break 6700 points in the heptathlon and run under 55 seconds in the 400 meters hurdles. Hall also has a 50.82 s personal best in the 400 meters. She is a three-time U.S. national champion and won two NCAA Division I titles representing the University of Florida.

Early life and background

Anna Hall grew up in an athletic household in Highlands Ranch, Colorado near Denver. Her father David was a three-sport letterman at the University of Michigan: a quarterback on the football team, played basketball and competed in the decathlon. Her older sisters Kathryn and Julia played tennis and ran track at Michigan respectively. She also has younger sister Lauryn and their mother's name is Ronette. Anna started track at seven by doing the high jump and then also running the 1500 meters. But she initially also skied a lot growing up in the mountains, played soccer, volleyball, lacrosse and field hockey, as well as swam for her neighborhood pool team in the summer.

Early career

Hall started high school at Arapahoe but switched to Valor Christian for her second year. She was a three-time New Balance Nationals pentathlon champion between 2017 and 2019 and the 2018 New Balance Nationals high jump champion. In 2018, she set her first pentathlon (junior class) and heptathlon national high school records. The 17-year-old made her international debut at the World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland that year, finishing ninth in the heptathlon against athletes up to two years her senior. The following year, she improved both her national high school records with 4302 and 5847 points at the USATF Indoor Championships (third place in senior division aged still 17) and Pan American U20 Championships (first place) respectively. She was also back-to-back heptathlon U20 national champion.

College

University of Georgia: 2021 injury

In 2019–2021, Hall represented Georgia Bulldogs. In 2021, after finishing second in the NCAA indoor pentathlon and third in the high jump, she was a NCAA high jump All-American to help the Bulldogs earn their NCAA Outdoor third place team finish as she skipped the heptathlon competition to focus on the delayed 2020 US Olympic trials.

During her 100 meters hurdles heat at the Olympic trials in June 2021, she hit the eighth barrier and crashed hard on the track, breaking the navicular bone in her left foot. She later posted, "my heart is broken that I didn’t get to put up the score I know I was ready for and my Olympic dreams (for this year) were shattered before my eyes". Hall had a surgery to insert a screw into this foot and wasn't cleared to walk until October. In the meantime, after a Bulldogs coaching change, she transferred from University of Georgia to University of Florida for a better fit also academically.

University of Florida: World heptathlon bronze

In 2022, Hall represented Florida Gators. After overcoming the broken foot, she turned in a personal best of 4618 points in her second pentathlon competition in February, winning the SEC indoor title. She then claimed the pentathlon and heptathlon titles at the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division I Championships respectively. Indoors, Hall helped the Gators win their first women's NCAA Indoor team title in 30 years. Outdoors, she was also the 400 m hurdles silver medalist to help the Gators earn their first ever NCAA Outdoor team title (running the 800 meters 20 minutes after her hurdles final). She shattered her heptathlon personal best with a score of 6412 points at the Texas Relays, breaking the collegiate record of 6390 set by the world record-holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1983 and setting an American record in the heptathlon 800 meters with a time of 2:04.61. Hall improved both marks to take the title at the USATF Combined Event Championships, with a total of 6458 points and the third-fastest heptathlon 800 m time in world history (2:03.11). She was named USTFCCCA Women's Outdoor National Field Athlete of the Year.

In July 2022, the 21-year-old bettered her heptathlon personal best by almost 300 points with a score of 6755 to claim the bronze medal at the home World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. After setting lifetime bests in three events, she became the third-best female heptathlete in American history and established a new NCAA record. It was the best US female heptathlon since 1993 and the first world medal in the discipline for the country for 20 years – since Shelia Burrell earned also bronze in 2001.

Professional career

In August 2022, Hall turned professional, signing a contract with Adidas.

2023: North American pentathlon indoor record

On February 16, 2023, she obliterated Brianne Theisen-Eaton's North American pentathlon record with a total of 5004 points at the USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Becoming the third female in history to achieve 5000 points or more and moving up to second place on the world all-time list, Hall just missed the world record of 5013 pts, set by Nataliya Dobrynska in 2012. At the same meet, she later claimed the 400 meters title, running a new personal best time of 51.03 seconds.

On May 28, the 22-year-old improved her hepthatlon PB by 233 points by amassing a world-leading 6988 for a win at the prestigious Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria to move to second / fifth on the NACAC area / world all-time list respectively. She set personal bests in five events, including a 100 m hurdles meet record of 12.75 s. Hall also turned in the second-best ever, behind only Jackie Joyner-Kersee, day-one score of 4172. She was selected for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023.

2024

Hall underwent knee surgery in January 2024. After breaking her foot mid-competition at the at the 2021 Olympic trials, Hall secured a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning the heptathlon at the US Olympic trials in June.

Achievements

International competitions

Circuit wins

  • World Athletics Combined Events Tour
    • 2023: Götzis Hypo-Meeting

Personal bests

National championships

Sources:

Collection James Bond 007

References

External links

  • Anna Hall at World Athletics
  • Anna Hall at www.USATF.org
  • Anna Hall at Florida Gators

Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: Anna Hall (athlete) by Wikipedia (Historical)



 


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