Colorado track athletes compete at U20 World Championships in Finland
Anna Hall (Valor Christian), Arria Minor (Denver East) and Lauren Gale (Discovery Canyon) each represented their schools and their country over the past week during the IAAF World U20 Championships in track and field hosted in Tampere, Finland.
Hall and Minor will begin their senior years this fall, while Gale graduated from DCC in May and will run track at Colorado State.
Hall, representing the United States, placed ninth in the world in the heptathlon, accumulating 5,655 points. Included was a second-place finish in the high jump, fifth in the 200 meters, and sixth in the 800 during the competition.
Hall was the top American finisher in the heptathlon. She set the national high school heptathlon record during a meet in June.
At the state championships in May, Hall won the long jump, as well as the 100 and 300 hurdles in Class 4A. She was named the 4A athlete of the year, and Colorado’s Gatorade girls track athlete of the year after the season.
Gale, who represented Canada, competed in the 200 meters. She placed seventh in her heat with a time of 24.78.
A native of Ottawa, Gale moved to Colorado Springs from Canada in the summer of 2015.
During the state championships, Gale swept the 100, 200 and 400 meters for the second time in her career.
Minor also represented the United States as part of its relay pool. She helped the Americans finish first in their heat with a time of 3:33.11.
The American team would go on to win gold the next day.
During the high school season, Minor set all-classification records in the 200 and 400 at the 5A state meet. Her time of 51.92 in the 400 was the fastest by a high school girl this season, and she also had the fastest indoor time (52.74) by a high school girl.
She was named the 5A girls track athlete of the year after the season.
