Sofie Dokter in the pentathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26 (© Getty Images)
World heptathlon champion Anna Hall ran herself into the ground at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26 in an attempt to add a second global gold – but even a championship best performance of 2:06.32 in the pentathlon’s concluding 800m could not wrest victory away from Sofie Dokter.
The 23-year-old Dutch athlete, who earned world indoor bronze in 2024 and European indoor silver last year, finally had the breakthrough gold she craved after a day of audacious effort.
For the champion-to-be, four rounds of dramatic pre-800m endeavour had culminated in a third and final long jump of 6.52m which, given Hall’s best of 6.21m, meant she had a 7.5-second advantage over the US athlete in the final foot race.
Hall knew what she had to do – and set off with characteristic boldness and guts. She was a world away from the rest of the field and dragged herself to the best 800m time ever seen in this competitive context.
But Dokter, who had been able to gain some support from runners around her, did enough to maintain her prime position as she finished in 2:10.86 to earn a winning total of 4888, a world-leading score.
Hall’s closing effort was not in vain, however, as it was enough to lift her above the Irish athlete who took silver behind her at the World Championships last year, Kate O’Connor, who had run a personal best of 2:10.26.
Hall took silver with 4860, with O’Connor third in a national record of 4839.
Missing out on a medal by one place – and just one point – was home athlete Adrianna Sulek-Schubert, who totalled 4638, with Hungary’s Szabina Szucs finishing fifth in a personal best of 4618.
Hall had spoken beforehand about her eagerness to embrace her first World Indoor Championships, and she started well in the 60m hurdles, clocking 8.18 to Dokter’s PB of 8.19.
Szucs was third fastest in a personal best of 8.21, with Beatrice Juskeviciute of Lithuania and O’Connor clocking 8.23.
Dokter topped the pile in the high jump with a season’s best of 1.87m, with Hall second on 1.84m and Sulek-Schubert and O’Connor on 1.81m.
Greece’s Anastasiya Ntragkomirova was the top performer in the shot put with an effort of 15.40m, but the biggest noise was made for home favourite Sulek-Schubert as she kept her medal challenge alive with a personal best of 14.89.
O’Connor also excelled with a personal best of 14.70m, third best. Hall was fifth with 14.23m and Dokter maintained her lead with 13.92m.
Dokter excelled again in the long jump, posting the best mark of the day with a season’s best of 6.52m. Hall responded with a final-round effort of 6.21m and O’Connor jumped 6.38m to remain in medal contention.
Dokter’s points advantage heading for the concluding 800m represented 7.5 seconds. Hall’s outdoor PB was significantly better, but the margin indoors was smaller.
So Dokter led into the final event with a leading total of 3956, with O’Connor second on 3878, Hall on 3841 and home athlete Adrianna Sulek-Schubert fourth on 3718. Everything was set for a finale that did not disappoint.
“I still cannot believe I am the world champion,” said Dokter. “This is definitely the greatest day of my athletics career so far.
“The moment when I believed I could win was after the long jump. After the final attempt, I told myself it was possible but I know Anna is super-fast in the 800m and I could not take it for granted.”
Hall, meanwhile, was unsparing in her self-criticism: "All of my events were below my expectations. In my eyes such performance is completely unacceptable. I’m going to evaluate what went wrong and fix it so it does not happen again.
“Silver in Torun is one of those bittersweet things because I never take winning a medal for my country for granted. At the same time, I know I'm capable of more. I think over the last two weeks we had some things go wrong in our preparation. I just need to do a better job of handling that going forward."
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
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