The Olympic shot put champion has given hope to the strong men of New Zealand athletics by showing what can be achieved on the international scene.
"Valerie has done it at three levels - youth, junior and senior world championships," Hall said. "She has been my inspiration."
Hall has targeted the World University Games in Erzum, Turkey, in 2011 and will use this season as a stepping stone to reach the standard.
"That is my major goal for the next two seasons," Hall (21), a psychology and commerce student at the University of Otago, said.
To achieve the target, Hall must throw his implement 57m. This is 7.41m further than the personal best of 49.59m he reached to win the senior men's title at last year's national championships in Auckland.
It has been a good year for Hall. He also won the discus gold medal at the Oceania Games on the Queensland Gold Coast in August when he beat Olympian Shaka Sola (Samoa).
The goal should be within Hall's grasp over the next two years. He improved by 6m in his first season as a senior athlete last summer.
Hall, who grew up in Invercargill before starting his studies in Dunedin, won the New Zealand junior title in 2007 but missed the next season after a spinal operation.
He demonstrated his big-time temperament when he had a personal-best throw by 3m to beat Pat Hellier (Auckland) to win the men's discus gold medal at the New Zealand championships.
It showed that under pressure he is able to dig deep and reach levels he has not achieved before.
A spot in the Commonwealth Games squad for New Delhi next year will be more difficult because the qualifying standard has been set at 60m. His winter training was geared for the long term.
"I was just concentrating on strength training and drills," Hall said.
The only exception to this strict regime came when Hall had a short preparation for the Oceania championships.
Another target for Hall this season is the Otago senior men's discus record of 56.86m that Robin Tait (Ariki) threw in 1966. It is the second oldest record on the Athletics Otago record books.
The oldest record was set in 1964 by Peter Welsh in the men's aged 20 3km steeplechase of 9min 05.6sec. Two years later, Welsh won the gold medal in the event at the Kingston Commonwealth Games.
Tait, who also holds the Otago senior men's shot put record of 16.88m that he set in 1966, won the gold medal in the discus at the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch in 1974.
Throwers take time to mature and do not reach their peak until their late twenties or thirties.
Time is on Hall's side. The London Olympics is probably too early for him, and he has set his sights on selection for the 2016 Olympics.
THE HALL FILE
• Age: 21
• Education: University of Otago psychology and commerce student.
• Sport: Athletics
• Event: Discus
• Club: Taieri
• Coach: Raylene Bates.
• Record: NZ Junior champion (2007), NZ senior champion (2009), Oceania champion (2009)
• Best distance: 49.59
