Anna Hall’s Weekend Negative Split 2:03

800

400h

Currently the best women’s t&f athlete in the world.

Um...no.

It's funny that these meh performances would be treated as impressive on they global scale. They're not.

But this is the attention that usually goes to white traditionally attractive athletes on LR.

(Though she is not even the best blonde women's t&f athlete in the world...or in the USA.)

This is a weird post, even for letsrun.

pls do elaborate

No reason -- yet, anyway! -- to claim she is the best female athlete in the world (Thiam had a better, and world record-setting, pentathlon performance indoors). But nor are they "meh" performances. The 400H time, even with the terrible stutter step at the 9th hurdle, would have ranked 26th in the world last year; the high jump would have been in the top 100. That's rare for a multi-event athlete. And the 800 time was not world-beating, but again very impressive for someone who trains for the heptathlon. She's already 4th all-time on the indoor pentathlon list. She was 13th on the the world indoor list at 400m. Wherever she stands on the "best athlete in the world spectrum", she clearly is a very, very special talent. I am excited to see what her career holds.

Watch more 800m races.

Athing Mu slightly negative split to 800m gold, 2021 Olympics. Eight-hundred meter world record was slightly negative split.

Tired athletes are more apt to negative split 800m. Some states race 4 x 800m as a standard T&F event at nearly every high school meet. You will see sometimes 800m athletes negative split the 2nd 800m race of the meet.

What I would like to see is a video of Michaela Rose of LSU dropping a 1:58.39 relay anchor at Texas Relays. Basically ten seconds faster than most of the field and probably the fastest college relay leg ever.

Take a deep breath - this is being reported as the first time *Hall* has raced in this manner (Not that it’s the first time a pentathlete, or any runner, has negative split or even split an 800).

props to Hall on her continuous improvement.

Nafi Thiam might have something to say about that.

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Interesting but I don't see how it does her much good from a situational standpoint. She's not going to be running in open 800 races. And she can't attempt stalker mode during a championship heptathlon or pentathlon, not unless she plans to run 2:08. There won't be anyone fresh or capable enough to put up those type of splits for her to follow.

Going out fast is her best strategy in a multi event. Do it often enough and steadily you'll improve the ability hang on. Go out slower and you'll die anyway.

You don't read well. Read what o.p. posted.

So we've seen childish Tuohy fans and now this... Again must be by Americans ~22-year-old

No one cares about her 400 mH. Does she want that way?

And she has only 3rd pentathlon all time, with 2 better marks also set this year.

So who is Nafi? Best, best, best t&f athlete in the world?

And who is Adrianna Sułek? Best, best t&f athlete in the world?

Of course Hall is a talented multi eventer, 3rd from Oregon, the fastest runner of them. However she must show herself in Budapest. And then we can talk...

Hall's performances were very impressive when you consider them in their totality. If you break them down individually they were just 'very good' (on an elite global scale)

A 400mh only just inside 55 secs is average. Whilst her new 14 step stride pattern might on paper look good, she was over striding for most of the race. But she wont be scaring any of the specialists with that time.

1.89 is excellent for a heptathlete, as is a 2:03.23 over 800m. It wont scare the specialists of course, but they are great enough marks to be a heptathlon medal candidate in Budapest.

And here's the point: why is she still messing about with the 400mh when she should be focusing on the heptathlon? She has talent in the 400mh, but she is kidding herself if she thinks she can compete and challenge in both events with the World's best. The time spent in training trying to learn 14 steps does nothing for her heptathlon. She will not medal in the 400mh, but she can in the heptathlon. She has the chance to go over 7000 pts, but she wont be if she keeps pissing around with the hurdles. On top of that, all these excessive early season events are going to take its toll come Budapest. She was brilliant in Eugene last summer, but in the 800m, where on paper she was head and shoulders above the others, she was very fatigued running just under 2:07, only beating Sulek by 51/100ths (8pts). Vidts finished less than 2 secs behind (27 pts). With her far superior PB she would be much further ahead in that last event.

Like others said great athlete but not a threat outside of the hep

Yeah, I don't get why she's training for the 400mh either.

Last year I think the justification was that coming 2nd in the event helped her team get points in the NCAA Championship, but now she's pro so that doesn't matter anymore.

It's very unlikely she's going to make the 400mh team over specialists like Muhammad, Wilson, Little, and Cockrell, who all ran sub-54 last season (I'm guessing SML gets a bye as World Champion). My guess is she does it because she enjoys it but like you said, all these early season events + spending time training the 400mh could be taking time away from the Hep.

Isn't she biracial?

There’s something weird with the 400 hurdles. Britton Wilson (better at the 400), Micaela Rose (better at the 800), and Femke Bol (better at the 400) might all end up doing it while Anna Hall focuses on it even though she’s a multi-athlete.

I think she very well could be a threat globally outside the heptathlon if she decided to pursue the 400, 400H or 800 full-time, or even for a season (a la Ashton Eaton in the 400H a few years back). As I noted in an earlier post, under 55 for 400H is not "average" -- it is world class. Given her 400 speed, I think she could be easily sub-54 later this year if she were to concentrate on it, and potential for significantly lower than that is clearly there. But the point made by the earlier poster is also valid -- 400H prowess will not help her beat Thiam, and heptathlete training will not help her to beat McLaughlin and Bol (maybe an impossible goal anyhow), so what's the point? I don't know. Maybe she's testing her own boundaries and seeing which direction she'd like to go in. And maybe she's just having fun -- and that's not such a bad thing either.