TOKYO (AP) — Anna Hall is the first to admit that the injuries, the excruciating losses and the hours of practice when she felt like she was going nowhere pushed her to lose her love for track and field.
With the 24-year-old American smiling, bounding and dancing across the track with the Stars and Stripes in tow Saturday night, it was plain to see she'd found it once again.
America's top multi-sport star stamped her name next to none other than Jackie Joyner-Kersee's, becoming the second American
winner of the world championship in the heptathlon — a two-day endurance test she closed with JJK herself on hand to watch Hall wrap things up.
“It's a pinch-me moment," Hall said. "Any athlete, their biggest dream would be to have the GOAT of their sport giving them advice on how to do it.”
This victory has roots dating to 2023, when Hall lost worlds to Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson by an almost too-cruel margin of 20 points — the sort of edge that one inch on a throw, or maybe a half-second on a run could have erased.
“Honestly, that hit me hard,” Hall said. “It took a while to get my head around that.”
The next year, a knee injury slowed her on the road to the Paris Olympics — where she finished fifth. But at least she made it. At Olympic trials in 2021, Hall crashed into a hurdle — a blowup that ended in her needing surgery on her left foot and ankle.
Reaching down and grabbing her new gold medal, she said it represented more than a win.
“Two surgeries over the last four years, tough losses, heartbreak, losing my love for the sport a little bit, then getting it back, it really just represents all of that,” Hall said. “So many people had to speak into me for this to happen. This is a testament to them.”
High on that list of fans would be Joyner-Kersee, who, until Saturday, was the only U.S. athlete to win the event at the Olympics (1988, ’92) or worlds (1987). She also holds the world record from 1988, though thinks it could belong to Hall someday.
Hall’s winning score of 6,888 points was 403 points short of Joyner-Kersee’s record.
“It’s just a matter of time before it all comes together,” Joyner-Kersee said in an interview with The Associated Press. “She has the ability to put up whatever score she wants to put up. I always say, just get out there and perform and let the numbers take care of themselves and see where you are.”
She was in first, which, on this day, was more than enough.
“I'm going to develop as I develop," Hall said. “We'll all find out together what my potential is.”
She said she was happy to not have to stress at the end of one of the most grueling tests in track and field. It was much different than the way the event-closing 800 meters went two years ago in that 20-point loss to Johnson-Thompson. This time, Hall was 122 points ahead of eventual silver medalist Kate O'Connor when they lined up for the last race. She won by 174.
The Colorado native spoke of nightmares she's had about being stuck in slow motion as she reaches the second lap of the 800. Those dreams make her "never feel like I quite have it until I cross the finish line.”
“So I just tried to stay relaxed and do my job,” she said. “Then, the last 200, I just kind of had a moment to myself and soaked in the crowd. That was a nice feeling.”
One made even better knowing that less than a year removed from nearly burning out on the sport, she now sits on top of it.
The American men's 4x400 relay team will get a re-do of sorts.
After getting tangled up with Zambia in the passing zone and finishing sixth in their qualifying heat, the U.S. protested and was granted a one-on-one showdown Sunday morning against Kenya, which also got caught up in the melee, with the winner earning a spot in Sunday's final.
The U.S. suffered no other mishaps in qualifying.
Sha'Carri Richardson's return to the track was the highlight. She blazed down the stretch of the 4x100. The U.S. won that race in a world-leading time of 41.60. On Sunday, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is expected to be in the lineup to go for her third gold of worlds.
And in the day's biggest surprise, Jamaica’s Ryiem Forde never got the baton to 100-meter silver medalist Kishane Thompson on the exchange between the third and fourth runners in the men’s 4x100.
The rare mistake by Jamaica cost Thompson and gold medalist Oblique Seville a chance to win that relay, where they would have been favored.
Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet added the 5,000-meter title to the 10,000-meter crown she won earlier at worlds. It’s a repeat of the distance double she captured at the Paris Olympics.
And just like Paris, Chebet held off her teammate and good friend Faith Kipyegon for gold in the 5K. They were shoulder-to-shoulder down the home stretch before Chebet pulled away.
Chebet finished in 14 minutes, 54.36 seconds, with Kipyegon, the 1,500-meter winner at worlds, less than a second behind. Nadia Battocletti of Italy was third.
“Me and Faith have been friends for a long time. We motivate each other,” Chebet said. “I am really pleased with our performances.”
The podium of the men’s 800 was the same as the Paris Games, just slightly different positions. But not for gold, where Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi captured both.
Djamel Sedjati of Algeria took silver at worlds after earning bronze in Paris, while Canada’s Marco Arop wound up with bronze after bringing home silver last summer.
Wanyonyi needed a world-championship record of 1:41.86 to hold off Sedjati and Arop.
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AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
