Two-time NCAA long jump champion Kate Hall will forgo her senior year at the University of Georgia to focus on training in Maine for the 2019 world championships.
Hall also is the national high school record holder in the long jump outdoors, the second of two national high school long jump titles she won in 2015.
The track and field world championships are held every two years, and in 2019 will be held in Doha, Qatar. The next Summer Olympics are in Tokyo in 2020.
Hall said Monday in a text message she will return to Maine to work with her trainer, Chris Pribish, the co-owner and director of UMedGym in South Portland.
Pribish said his gym is in the early planning stages of building a new facility in Falmouth that will have a long jump pit with Hall in mind. He said she is expected to go pro.
“I am thrilled to have Kate back in the state and have the opportunity to continue working with her during this next chapter of her career,” Pribish said.
Hall was home schooled in Casco and ran for Lake Region High in Naples, while being coached by her father, Eric Hall, and Pribish. As a senior, Hall set a meet record at the 2015 New Balance national indoor track and field championships with a long jump of 20 feet, 11.25 inches. Months later, she broke a 39-year-old national high school record at the New Balance outdoor meet with a personal best of 22-5.
In June 2017, Hall won her first NCAA long jump title with a Georgia school-record leap of 22-1.
During the indoor season this winter, Hall won her second NCAA title with a leap of 22-1, a Georgia indoor record.
She also earned All-America honors in the 60 meters, finishing sixth after running a school-record time of 7.17 seconds in the preliminary round – a time that ranked her among the top 10 sprinters in the country.
In Eugene, Oregon, earlier this month, Hall failed to qualify for the finals at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships, jumping 20-1.75.
She could not be reached for further comment Monday.
Deirdre Fleming can be reached at 791-6452 or at:
dfleming@pressherald.com
Twitter: FlemingPph
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