“Every single global heptathlon now is going to be an absolute dogfight,” predicts Anna Hall. “That is so exciting.”

It continued the 22-year-old’s rapid rise in the multi-discipline event after she claimed her first major senior global medal at last year’s World Championships in Eugene.

There, she took bronze behind Belgium’s two-time Olympic and world champion Nafi Thiam and Dutch runner-up Anouk Vetter.

Hoping to improve on that achievement in August, Hall is predicting a titanic – and potentially historic – podium battle with her rivals in Budapest.

“Everyone is going to step up their game,” said Hall, speaking on the Warm Up Track podcast.

“I think, come the worlds this summer, we might see three, maybe four athletes over 7,000 points.”

The 7,000-point mark has only been exceeded on four occasions in history – most recently by Thiam, in 2017.

Hall admits that competing with Thiam and former world champion Johnson-Thompson, two of her sporting idols, has taken some adapting to.

But, in her first year as a professional athlete and with medals firmly on her mind, she has been forced to balance “fangirling” with business.

“Nafi and KJT were big, big inspirations to me, so it’s been weird to compete against them,” Hall said.

“For the first few days at the practice track at the Worlds I was fangirling and my coaches told me to stop.

“The respect and admiration is definitely still there but now it’s like, ‘I’m going to try and beat you’. My mindset is that it’s anybody’s competition.

“Before Gotzis I don’t think I’d ever been a favourite for an international meet before. I like being the underdog. It’s definitely different, but most of the pressure comes from myself.”

An emotional comeback after Olympic heartbreak

For a brief second, Anna Hall lies motionless on the track.

The American’s Olympic hopes were over, that much she knew.

Three hurdles from the finish line she had been left with a shattered dream, and a broken foot.

In tears and agony as she was assisted off the track, and with a long road to recovery ahead, Hall, then 20, would question her future in the sport.

She could certainly not have foreseen then that, one year later, she would once again collapse on the very same track – only, this time, beside one of her sporting inspirations, having just won a World Championship medal.

“The bronze at the Worlds is always going to be so emotional for me because of what happened the year before,” Hall said.

“It was heart-breaking and it definitely took me a while to process.

“I had a good month or so when I was just feeling bad for myself, wondering whether this is really what I should be doing and questioning whether I was cut out for it.”

Hall required surgery on her foot and, as her recovery got under way, she also underwent a significant change in her personal life as she transferred from the University of Georgia to Florida.

Despite the lingering doubt in her mind, she was humbled by the support of her close family and coaches, which motivated Hall to repay them by fully committing to her rehabilitation.

It began an agonising journey back to fitness – whatever cross-training she could manage – with her efforts culminating in a podium place back in Eugene last summer.

“Last year was super emotional. It did really feel like everything had come full circle,” Hall said.

“It was just really cool to look back and think, with the people around my and the work I put in, we were able to come back from the very bottom.

“I was crying out there because I couldn’t believe we had come this far.

“Honestly, in that moment I put all of the doubts to rest. This is what I’m meant to do.

“I had proved to myself and everyone else that I belonged on the world stage.”