Kate Hall already is a national champion long jumper at both the high school and collegiate levels.
But her next goals are competing in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. That has prompted her decision to to leave the University of Georgia after her junior year, which she announced this week on Twitter.
“It’s been in my mind for a couple of months now,” the 21-year-old Hall said Monday from her home in Casco. “All of a sudden I just started to say, ‘Hmm, the Olympics are only two years away and I really need to get used to competing overseas, so I can hopefully make it and do well.’
“Once I started thinking about it I began talking to my parents (Eric and Jennifer) and anyone else I’m close with, and we all decided this was the best thing for me now.”
Hall plans to resume training in Maine soon with an emphasis on customizing her workout regimen with personal coach Chris Pribish, who helped her win 26 individual state championships while competing for Lake Region High School in Naples and capture the 2015 New Balance national indoor championship in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 11 1/4 inches.
“In high school he always planned my workouts and helped me with peaking and it always worked out really well for me,” Hall said.
That training regimen will focus on the major national and international meets that typically are held during the summer rather than Hall continuing to focus on the college indoor and outdoor seasons, which run throughout the academic year.
The world championships are scheduled to begin Sept. 28, 2019, while the 2020 Summer Olympics begin in late July — both long after the college season has ended.
“The collegiate season is so long that once it’s done it’s so hard to keep going and competing in meets like the USAs and the the worlds,” Hall said. “It’s really hard on your body to train that long.
“Now I’m going to be competing in the big meets that are going on more in the middle of the summer so I can tailor my schedule to when I think will be a good time to start so my body doesn’t get worn down.”
Also entering into Hall’s decision to refine her training schedule is that she lives with type 1 diabetes, which may have factored into her not qualifying for the finals of this month’s NCAA Division I long jump championships after she won that event in 2017 and claimed the NCAA Division I indoor long jump title last winter.
“People with type 1 diabetes definitely tend to recover differently than people without type 1 diabetes, so I think it’s a combination of that and the wear and tear,” Hall said.
Hall has not turned professional yet, but is in the process of hiring an agent to facilitate that move.
“Once I have an agent we’ll see what kind of offers I get, but that’s the ultimate idea,” she said.
Hall’s decision comes just days after another Maine-based track standout, Isaiah Harris of Lewiston, made his pro debut at the U.S. Track and Field championships last Sunday with a second-place finish in the 800-meter final.
“When I read about Isaiah in the newspaper he said something like he didn’t want to continue to compete in college because of all the extra meets and that’s exactly why I’m doing it, too,” she said.
“It’s good to accumulate titles, but right now my priority is making the world team and the Olympics, so that’s what my focus is on.”
Hall expects to resume light training in two or three weeks, then begin working out more aggressively in the fall.
“I want to keep doing long jump and I want to sprint, too, because I think that helps my long jump tremendously,” she said. “I’ll probably do some indoor meets in the Boston area to start out and then just see where it takes me from there.”
Hall’s personal best in the long jump of 22 feet, 5 inches would have been the winning leap at last weekend’s U.S. outdoor championships and also would have qualified her for the 2017 world championships.
“I’m pretty close to being where I need to be now,” she said. “Just as long as I’m having a good day and my marks are on and my body’s feeling good then I think I should fare well.
“I need to fine-tune but more than that I need more personalized training that’s tailored to me so that’s what I’m doing.”
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