From humble beginnings, David Hall has blossomed into one of Britain’s most talented combined eventers

Having won numerous national combined events titles and represented Britain at the IAAF World Junior Championships, David Hall is one of Britain s best young decathlon hopes. However, his achievements are a far cry from when his mum first took him to the track as a nine-year-old.

Now 19, David remembers: My mum wanted me to burn some energy so she took me down to the local track in Dartford and I just ran around like a nutter for an hour. It wasn t until I was about 15 that I started doing multi events with my first coach Paul Searing, when I did an octathlon at the Kent county championships.”

Having found an instant love for training for the different events, the Dartford athlete has not looked back. The teenager won his first national medal when taking silver in the English Schools under-17 combined events in 2011 and followed this up by winning the under-20 equivalent and also taking the England Athletics under-20 title the following year, the latter being a feat he repeated the next year, as well as representing Great Britain in the combined events indoor international in Spain.

“My mum wanted me to burn some energy so she took me down to the local track in Dartford and I just ran around like a nutter for an hour”

Last year marked another important step for the ambitious athlete, as after winning the England Athletics under-20 indoor title, he placed second in the Combined Events International, won the England Athletics under-20 outdoor title and earned his first selection for a major championships at the World Junior Championships, where he finished 14th.

Reflecting on the experience in Eugene, he says: It was an amazing experience. I was very happy to qualify for the championships and every minute of the trip lived up to my expectations. The international experience that I had beforehand helped, as I was used to travelling with a team and staying away from my normal set up for a few days before competing. However, at the same time it was a massive step up. The standard of the competition was incredible and it could have been quite an overwhelming experience.”

David has started this year in flying form, placing fourth in the England Athletics indoor combined events in his first year as a senior and repeating this position in the Combined Events International. He also clocked a PB of 46.91 to win the BUCS indoor 400m title.

David explains his targets for this year: The primary goal for this year is to score 7700 points and qualify for the European under-23s and then hopefully, if I make it, I will aim for a top five finish. My future aspirations, like any young athlete, are to represent Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”

“My future aspirations, like any young athlete, are to represent Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics”

Studying physiotherapy at Brunel University, David is quick to credit his coach Ian Grant and the set-up he has in place, which includes training alongside Commonwealth silver medallist Ashley Bryant.

The indoor track is only a minute from my university halls,” he says. Most of the guys in my training group have represented GB in combined events in recent years. It is also a massive help to train with Ashley Bryant, as I can push myself to match his performances.

In a normal week we would look to train for each event twice and fit in three running and weights sessions as well.”

So far, David is managing to balance training alongside his academic commitments. The closeness and quality of the facilities at Brunel has made it a lot easier than it otherwise would have been to fit in my studies and training for ten events,” he adds.

You can find further performance stats on David on Power of 10 here.

Support young athletes via the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, see rpmf.org.uk

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