Where it all began: Hall’s first global gold

The World Athletics Cross Country Championships Tallahassee 26 opened with a sense of inevitability. On the same trails where Linden Hall once trained as a young athlete, she began the championships not as a returning student, but as a contender – ready, at last, for her moment on the global stage.

That moment arrived immediately. In the opening race of the championships, Hall helped Australia strike gold in the mixed relay, securing her first global title and claiming the very first medal awarded in Tallahassee. It was a victory that landed quickly but carried the weight of years.

Because this was never just another championship for Hall; Tallahassee was part of her formation. The gold medal marked the breakthrough that had eluded her across a long international career, and it came on the ground that had shaped her long before medals were ever part of the conversation.

Tallahassee is not just another dot on Hall’s racing map. She studied and trained in Florida, living on campus while competing at Florida State University from 2011-2015, learning the rhythms of cross country on a course that has grown and evolved since her college days, yet still holds familiar traces of the trails she once knew intimately.

“When I was at school, the course was really narrow down the back,” she recalled shortly after stepping off the podium. “We were here when it was not what it is today.”

Back then, the infrastructure was minimal. “There weren’t even bathrooms out here,” she said, smiling. “There was like a little podium and that was it.” The course was functional, not finished, shaped as much by the athletes who used it as by any long-term vision.

Hall even remembers the team workdays spent maintaining and improving it. “They used to be like team working days… mostly the boys’ team, let’s be honest,” she joked. But those hours mattered, as they created a connection that never quite left.

Now, standing on the same ground as a world champion, that connection felt tangible. “I feel like I’ve been able to see the changes,” she said. “To see how much love has gone into making this what it is today, it’s really cool.”

What made the moment even more striking is that this was Hall’s first-ever appearance at a World Cross Country Championships. Despite an international résumé that includes Olympic finals and multiple global championships, this event had always remained just out of reach.

“I didn’t want to come until I was really ready,” she explained. “The 10km as a senior has always been a bit far for me as a 1500m runner.”

The addition of the mixed relay changed everything; it landed perfectly within Australia’s current strengths and Hall’s own sweet spot. “Australia sending a team this year is right where we are as a team,” she said. “We’ve got great depth, and we knew this would be perfect for us.”

The result was a gold medal that felt earned not just through fitness, but through patience. Hall spoke openly about the people behind her longevity: family, friends, training partners and Australian teammates who have collectively lifted standards since the Tokyo Olympics. “We’ve all kind of fed off each other and given each other that belief,” she said.

Emotionally, racing in Tallahassee carried an added layer. “Running here today was very full circle,” Hall reflected. “To finally win a medal in something, to do it here, it’s like a fairytale.”

It was the kind of outcome that younger versions of herself could never have imagined. “If you’d told me when we were here training for cross country 10 years ago, I would have laughed at you.”

Her season has already moved on, and she carried her momentum into the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix last weekend where she finished a close second to 2024 world indoor champion Elle St Pierre in the 3000m. Hall was rewarded with an outright PB of 8:27.03, taking three seconds off the lifetime best she set outdoors last year, and finishing nine seconds ahead of Australian teammate Jessica Hull, the Olympic 1500m silver medallist.

After one or two more races in the US, Hall will head home to Australia for summer competition and national championships. Future global events may or may not follow.

But nothing will quite replicate her moment in Tallahassee: the first race of the championships, the first gold medal awarded, and a career-defining triumph unfolding on the ground where it all quietly began.

Ainhoa Serrano for World Athletics