After securing silver and bronze at the past two editions of the World Championships, US heptathlete Anna Hall will be going for gold to complete the medal set at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 in September.
Following her meteoric rise in the combined events world, Hall had to overcome setback after setback to make it to top shape. The stars aligned for the 24-year-old at the Hypomeeting in Götzis, where she scored 7032 points to move to equal second on the world all-time list.
“The last heptathlon I did before this broke my heart,” said Hall, referring to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where she finished fifth and 92 points shy of a medal. “But I feel like this heptathlon healed it.”
View the full interview on World Athletics Watch
And she has her sights set on an even bigger score in Tokyo. That would put her ahead of Carolina Klüft on the world all-time list, with Klüft achieving her own 7032-point performance in Japan – at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. Only Jackie Joyner-Kersee, with her world record of 7291 set at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, has ever scored higher.
“The biggest goal for me at the Tokyo World Championships is to be the best that I have been all year long,” says Hall.
“The last two years, I haven’t been able to score my best at the end of the season like I did way back in 2022 when I first appeared at the World Championships. My biggest goal is to get back to doing that, so I am excited to put a score together here this weekend in Götzis and then make sure that I score higher than that in Tokyo to give myself a shot at the gold medal.”