Ian Hall Is Spending His Final Year Of High School Abroad

With few academic or athletic certainties in front of Ian Hall for the remainder of 2020 -- or realistically for his remaining time in high school -- his family made a decision late last summer that would impact the remainder of his time as a prep student-athlete.

They flew 4,000 miles across the world to relocate to Eastern Europe.

Here's why it worked: With his mother, Samira, a native Bosnian and his father, Ken, a former military serviceman, Ian held dual-citizenship, meaning his journey was a distinct possibility.

It helped too, though, that Hall had spent time in the country previously, held a working passport and also spoke multiple languages.

So that's how the 17-year-old, the top-rated javelin thrower in the United States for the Class of 2021 and a recent Florida State University signee, ended up in Sarajevo, Bosnia, for the remainder of his high school term. He currently attends an international school, Richmond Park, in the capital city of Bosnia.

"I had gone to junior high here," Hall said. "Since I've been here before, it kind of feels like home to me, just like the United States.

"But since I'm older now and I can see things more clearly and definitive and priorities are in a different order, it's a great place to get stuff done."

Over the last six months, Hall has utilized his time efficiently, competing in Bosnia and Turkey across national-level events like the Bosnian and Balkan U20 Championships.

Eastern Europe, he says, has managed the pandemic in a much more impactful way, with many districts in the region having overcome lockdowns early on in 2020. Hall attends in-person school over the weekday from early morning to 1 p.m.

"The academic system here is very, very robust and very efficient," he says.

But the former Rhode Island state javelin champion, who won state titles as a freshman and sophomore and a New England Championship in 2019, is also getting athletic chances at a better clip, too.

He proceeded to finish first and eighth at two separate national-level events in August and September, posting a winning javelin mark of 60.20 meters (198 feet, 10 inches) at the Bosnian U20 Championships. The following month, he launched a mark of 58.66 meters (192-5) on a walking 5-step approach at the Balkan U20 Championships, finishing eighth. 

"So typically it's kind of quiet when people compete in Europe," Hall said. "They're very stoic. The coaches will sometimes yell 'Heimo' or 'Idi.' They're like, 'Let's go' or 'Go.' They train the athletes to be in their own little world and their own little cage."

His best performance over the last six months, though, took place at the Zenica Invitational, where he threw 62.64 meters (205-6) and finished fifth.

That was on brute strength alone, he said.

"It's never a good idea to go into a competition expecting the least out of yourself," Hall said. "I knew I was in a point in time where I couldn't throw as far as I used to, especially since I didn't train for a long time. After the six rounds, I wanted to head back home. But I was OK with the mark I had."

Of course, life isn't exactly normal -- or at least the way it was pre-pandemic -- Ian says, but things are a little better. In the interim, he's is focusing on improving his self-admitted weaknesses in training.

"I'd say the biggest weakness I have is the ability to continuously speed up towards the end of the throw," he said. "What I really worked on was to transition to the throw where I speed up and still execute at the last moment with the same amount of power I put into something like a walking throw."

That being said, Hall's weaknesses are few and far between for someone of his maturation: They only limit him, say, from launching international-level marks for a javelin thrower. At the end of the day, Hall exhibits special talent at a young age. 

As an eighth-grader, for instance, he threw 58.33 meters (191-4.75) -- third best in the MileSplit record books for his class.

Then, in his introduction at high school competition at Rogers High School in Providence, he claimed his first Rhode Island State Championship with a mark of 51.97 meters (170-6) before raising his overall PR to 56.70 that season at the American JavFest.

* Ian Hall after his Rhode Island outdoor state championship in 2018

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Hall eventually would hit a sophomore-best of 65.35 meters at the Rhode Island state championships in 2019, netting his second state title, before his junior year was erased due to state cancellations forced on by COVID-19.

Interestingly enough, though, Hall was biding his time in the shot put before that happened, and he hit a personal indoor best of 52 feet, 7.75 inches that January - not bad for a javelin thrower who was going on pure instinct.

But while Hall did show potential in the shot put, he knew the cost of training.

"I realized if I had devoted as much time needed to improve in the shot put, I would have had to take away time for the javelin."

While Hall did compete in some virtual competitions through the pandemic -- he produced a MileSplit Virtual Classic winning mark of 192 feet, 9 inches -- no mark was official in the books. By August, Hall and his family were preparing for a move -- but not before the rising senior got one more win under his belt in August, with Hall winning the RITCA Invitational in Providence with a mark of 60.02 meters. 

Life in Bosnia has proved to be a validation of sorts for Hall, who plans to study international affairs at Florida State University. He says he's fluent in Bosnian -- which also covers Croatia and Serbian dialects -- and is currently learning German, Turkish and Latin.

That's one of the biggest reasons why he picked Florida State, he said, other than the fact that the men's program is annually one of the top teams in the country and has a strong tradition of international competitors. Hall's life goal is to work in an embassy one day. 

With progress in athletics, though, Hall could show just how talented he is on the collegiate scene. The former Rhode Islander hopes to produce marks into 70 meters by the end of his youth term, and in doing so he could enter into another stratosphere when it comes to international competition.

That's where he's still figuring things out. Over the last months, Hall has competed for Bosnia, the country from which his mother was born. Perhaps at some point, if he is afforded the opportunity, the 17-year-old will have to determine what his future will lie at the international level.

"It took a lot of thinking before I went in and just decided to compete for Bosnia," he said. "I believe it's a two-year no competition thing, where you can't compete for any country in any international competitions when you decided to switch from country to country. But I decided to go with Bosnia for the first country I represented."

But Hall has been encouraged by the examples set by Mondo Duplantis, who grew up and studied in Louisiana but later decided to represent Sweden, where his mother was born.

It might not be as easy for Hall to secure a World Record like Duplantis -- the former Lafayette athlete owns a World Best pole vault mark of 6.15 meters -- did a few years after high school, but he says his last year in Bosnia before the move back to the United States will prove to be an important one.

For as much in athletics, he says, as the maturation of him as an adult. 

As for his next competition? He'll likely do that sooner rather than later.

"Realistically, in the next couple years, getting back on track to go over 70 meters (is my goal)," he said, "which is about 230- to 240-feet. That's what I was going to shoot for last year before the pandemic."