Hall Gets Five PBs On the Way To 6,988 Points In Austria

By David Woods for DyeStat

Image World Athletics

More almosts for Anna Hall.

Almost 7,000 points. Almost a meet record. Almost a heptathlon 800-meter record.

This isn’t a case of a glass half-empty. More like 99% full.

“I had no idea I would score this high,” Hall told World Athletics.

She produced the biggest heptathlon score in six years, became No. 5 on the all-time list and climbed into Jackie Joyner-Kersee territory Sunday in the Hypo Meeting at Gotzis, Austria. If she had not done so already, the 22-year old from Denver positioned herself as one of NBC’s athletes to watch ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Hall set PBs in five of seven events en route to 6,988 points. She will be a gold-medal favorite heading into  August’s World Championships at Budapest, Hungary.

Asked about the 7,000-point barrier, she said:

“I would hope that I do better at Worlds than I do here. So hopefully in Budapest. But I mean, right now, our focus is just on building a special career, a long-term career. A special career isn’t one individual title or one individual medal or one big score. It’s long-term improvement, dominance, and that’s what I’m working towards.”

In the closing 800 meters, she redefined what it means to go for it. Needing a time of 2:02.22 for 7,000, she ran the first 400 in 58.51 and was at 1:30.47 through 600.

She finished in a PB of 2:02.97. The heptathlon world record of 2:01.84 by France’s Nadine Debois has stood since 1987 . . . but that gives Hall something else to pursue.

“This place is incredible. The energy’s insane,” Hall said.  “You can’t help but just give it your best.”

Updating the heptathlon all-time list:

7,291 Jackie Joyner-Kersee, USA, 1988

7,032 Carolina Kluft, Sweden, 2007

7,013 Nafi Thiam, Belgium, 2017

7,007 Larissa Nikitina, Soviet Union, 1989

6,988, Anna Hall, USA, 2023

Hall’s score was the highest since Thiam’s Gotzis record in 2017.

Hall’s Day 1 score of 4,172 is the second-highest ever, behind only JJK. It was “pretty close to perfect,” Hall said. She was 150 points ahead of the score she set in winning a bronze medal at the 2022 Worlds, where she finished with 6,755.

She said she was behind the board in the long jump, costing her a 7-meter distance and perhaps 150 points. Her javelin throw was nearly three meters less than her best of 150-1 (45.75m). So she had 5,918 points heading into the 800.

Her Gotzis event by event:

100 hurdles, 12.75 PB, 1,162 points.

High jump, 6-3.5 PB (1.92m), 1,132.

Shot put, 45-7.25 (13.90m), 787.

200 meters, 22.88 PB, 1,091.

Day 1, 4,172 points.

Long jump, 21-5.5 (6.54m), 1,020.

Javelin, 141-4 (43.08m), 726.

In February’s USATF Indoor Championships, Hall set an American record of 5,004 points, nine off what was then the world record of 5,013 by Ukraine’s Nataliya Dobrynska in 2012.

Hall’s opening 100 hurdles broke the meet record of 12.78 set by Nadine Visser in 2017.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Great Britain finished second with 6,556 points, her best score since winning the 2019 World title.

Adrianna Sulek of Poland was third with 6,480. In March, she held the pentathlon world record for about six seconds. Sulek scored 5,014 and finished second to Thiam’s 5,055 at the European Indoor Championships.

Annie Kunz was sixth at Gotzis with 6,330.  The 30-year old former Texas A&M soccer player won the 2021 Olympic Trials with 6,703.

In the decathlon, Canadians Pierce LePage and Damian Warner finished first and second with 8,700 and 8,619, respectively.

LePage won world silver last year with 8,701. Warner, 33, is the 2021 Olympic champion and a three-time world medalist.

Sander Skotheim, a 20-year old from Norway, was third with a PB of 8,590.

American Devon Williams had 7,171 points through nine events but did not start the 1,500 meters.

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