Georgia signee chooses to chase gold medal, meet record in final career U-20 event in Costa Rica over competing against professional, collegiate athletes at USATF Outdoor Championships in Iowa

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Anna Hall doesn’t like to turn down the chance to compete against professional athletes, which the 18-year old has done the past two years at the USATF Indoor Championships, and what she aspired to do again July 25-28 at the USATF Outdoor Championships in Iowa.

But with the decision to focus on the heptathlon next year at the U.S. Olympic Trials, the graduate of Valor Christian High in Colorado knew she would only have one more opportunity to represent the U.S. in U-20 international competition before heading to Georgia.

So, after weighing the options with her family, FK Elite club coach Chuck Dugue and Georgia head coach Petros Kyprianou, instead of making her final heptathlon of the summer against collegiate and pro competitors in Des Moines, Hall decided to conclude her prep career at the Pan American U-20 Championships.

Hall is hoping her choice to compete for the Americans in the heptathlon Saturday and Sunday not only produces a new personal best, but possibly a gold medal at National Stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica.

“We all decided together that it would be best to give Juniors one last go because I will definitely opt out of U-20s next year for the Olympic Trials,” said Hall, who is attempting to become the fifth U.S. heptathlete in meet history to win the title.

“It was somewhat of a bittersweet decision because I was so excited to compete with those girls again, but at the same time, it’s such an honor to represent the USA at an international meet and those experiences are limited.”

Hall placed ninth in the heptathlon a year ago with 5,655 points at the IAAF World U-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

She repeated as USATF U-20 champion June 23 with 5,646 points, giving her the top four all-time heptathlon scores by a prep athlete, including the national high school record 5,798 last June at the Great Southwest Classic in New Mexico.

Hall, the No. 2 all-time American U-20 performer, was on pace to surpass that mark after accumulating her best first-day total of 3,625 points in Miramar, Fla., before challenging weather conditions and struggles in the long jump and javelin halted momentum in her first heptathlon since recovering from an ankle injury earlier in the season.

“A huge part of the long jump problem was just not being confident, both in my approach and in my ankle. We changed the number of steps from 21 to 18 and with the new step pattern, it is easier for me to understand which phase I am in, because it is broken into three lefts, three lefts, three lefts,” Hall said. “Mostly, this has just made me more confident on the runway because I have been consistently on the board every practice, so the confidence will help me bring more speed through the end, instead of slowing down and stuttering like before, and that’s speed I am now comfortable planting off of because of the gained ankle confidence. We reworked the approach about a week and a half after U-20s, so I have had a decent amount of time to adjust.”

When Hall achieved the all-time prep performance last year in Albuquerque, she produced a personal-best 19-10.75 (6.06m) in the long jump. Her mark of 16-11.50 (5.17m) in Florida was a difference of more than 260 points.

In addition, her javelin throw as part of the record-setting effort last year was 117-11 (35.96m), compared to 105-6 (32.16m) at the U-20 Championships, a difference of more than 70 points.

But with more than three weeks to regroup and renew motivation in preparation for Costa Rica, Hall is not only looking to eclipse the 2017 meet record of 5,733 points by Cuba’s Adriana Rodriguez, but possibly produce the top score by a World U-20 athlete this year.

Spain’s Maria Vicente captured gold at the European U-20 Championships on Friday in Boras, Sweden with the top World U-20 performance this season and a Spanish national record of 6,115 points, one of three women to surpass the 6,000-point barrier.

Cuba’s Marys Adela Patterson Cabrera is also expected to challenge for the top spot in Costa Rica with a personal-best 5,630 points.

“My body has felt great,” Hall said. “We had some time to beat it up a little and then as we took the load back off to taper, our entire focus was just building confidence. We reworked and fine-tuned some things.”

Although she would have had another opportunity to compete against former Georgia standout and American U-20 record holder Kendell Williams in Iowa next week, Hall remains inspired in pursuit of Williams’ 2014 mark of 6,018 points.

Hall is also looking to follow Texas graduate and current NCAA Division 1 champion Ashtin Zamzow – the 2015 Pan American U-20 winner in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – in capturing heptathlon gold for the U.S.

“Although I will be in the Junior ranks this year, I will be aiming to put up a score that makes the pro and NCAA girls do a double take,” Hall said. “I know I haven’t put it all together yet and it’s going to be hard to put it together, but at least I know that I’ve made progress because that’s the thing that I’m looking for.

“I’d be really disappointed if, by the end of the season, I never PR’d in anything and if I never got more consistent in anything. I’ve seen that in some events and it doesn’t always show the way that I want it to, but I’m hoping in my next one that I’ll be able to put it together. If not, at least I go into Georgia knowing that I am a better athlete than I was last year.”