Anna Hall (athlete)

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.[4][7]

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".[8] 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.[8][3]

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.[3] 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).[3][9][10] She shattered her heptathlon personal best with a score of 6412 points at the Texas Relays, breaking the collegiate record of 6390 set by Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1983 and setting an American record in the heptathlon 800 meters with a time of 2:04.61.[8] 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).[3] She was named USTFCCCA Women’s Outdoor National Field Athlete of the Year.[11]

In July that year, 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, becoming the third-best female heptathlete in American history and setting a new NCAA record. It was the best American female result since 1993 and the first world medal in the event for the country in over 20 years – since Shelia Burrell earned also bronze in 2001.[12][13]

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 athlete 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.[15][16] At the same meet, she later claimed the 400 meters title, running a new personal best time of 51.03 seconds.[17]

Sources:[19][20]