Anna Hall put up the second-highest point total of all time in the women’s heptathlon this past weekend at the prestigious Hypo-meeting in Götzis, Austria. She only trails Jackie Joyer-Kersee, who set the heptathlon world record in 1988 when she scored 7291 points at the Olympic Games.
Anna Hall is still only 24 years old, two years younger than Joyer-Kersee at the time of her record performance. It seems likely that Hall could still make improvements in the upcoming years, perhaps finding her peak at the end of the 2028 Olympic cycle if she stays healthy.
Hall’s personal best of 7,032 points puts her 259 points behind Joyner-Kersee. Let’s take a look at how these two women accumulated their point totals and what Hall would need to do to break the World Record.
Anna Hall Compared to Jackie Joyner-Kersee
As grueling as the multi-events can be on the body, they at least come with the advantage that there are many ways to improve. Hall and Joyner-Kersee both scored over 7000 points, but there are some key differences in how they achieved these scores.
Anna Hall put up world-class results in the 800-meters (breaking the heptathlon record) and the high jump.
Joyner-Kersee holds the second-longest long jump of all time with a personal best of 7.49 meters. Along with setting the heptathlon world record in 1988, she won the Olympic gold medal in the long jump. Her jump of 7.27 meters is a heptathlon world record.
Joyner Kersee’s time in the hurdles is also world class, and her personal best of 12.61 seconds ranks her inside the top 100 of all time.
Hall has several ways that she may be able to challenge the world record. She’s unlikely to match Joyner-Kersee’s long jump, but she may be able to close the gap in several other ways.
Scenario 1: She Gets All PRs
In this first scenario, Hall would have to break her PRs in every event by about 16 points, except for high jump, which she would break by two centimeters. Each extra centimeter rewards about 13 points.
This scenario seems the most farfetched. In every heptathlon, some events go well and some don’t. It’s not realistic to think everything will go well on the same day in an athlete who is already competing at an international level. However, it does give us a starting point to see what it would take.
Scenario 2: Big Improvements in the Throws and Long jump
In this scenario, Hall would achieve the same scores as in her 7032 performance in all the events except for the shot put, javelin, and long jump.
She would add 100 points to her javelin by increasing her throw to 51.84m and also increase her shot put by 100 points with a throw of 16.35m.
Improving her long jump by 21 centimeters would add an additional 68 points to her score to get her up to 7300.
Scenario 3: Similar Ratios as This Weekend
In this third scenario, Hall would keep roughly the same point ratio as her 7032 point performance. She would see a slight increase in all seven events to put her over the world record mark.
Some of these performances may be easier to achieve than others. For example, adding an extra two centimeters to her high jump certainly seems possible, but dropping her already fast time of 2:01.23 in the 800 meters seems difficult for an athlete primarily focusing on speed and power, especially if she tries to make gains in the throwing events.
Scenario 4: Her strongest Events Get Even Stronger
In this final scenario, Hall would primarily improve in her events that are already her strongest and stay the same in some of her weaker events like the shot put and the javelin.
Going from 13.19 seconds to 12.60 seconds in the hurdles would be no easy feat. This time would rank her 92 all time in the event. High jumping 2.00 meters would also be a big jump up from 1.95 meters, but may not be outside the realm of possibility if she focuses on the event.
Perhaps the most difficult improvement of all in this scenario would be dropping her 800-meter time to 1:58.50. This time would have captured fourth at the 2024 Olympics.
Can Anna Hall Break the World Record?
There’s a reason why nobody has come close to Joyner-Kersee’s record in almost 30 years. Getting close to 7300 points almost certainly requires putting up a performance in at least one or two events that would reach the Olympic final if not contend for a medal.
Hall may be able to break the record if she continues to see improvements across the board or big improvements in a handful of events. One of the keys will be staying healthy. She’s already had several surgeries before her 24th birthday, but if she can avoid serious injury it seems entirely possible she could continue to improve.
