FLYING: Kerikeri runner Imogen Hull, 18, has landed an all-expenses-paid scholarship to the US worth more than $160,000. PHOTO: PETER DE GRAAF
FLYING: Kerikeri runner Imogen Hull, 18, has landed an all-expenses-paid scholarship to the US worth more than $160,000. PHOTO: PETER DE GRAAF
Look out America, here comes Imogen Hull
A lifelong love of running has landed a Kerikeri teen a US scholarship worth more than $160,000.
Imogen Hull, 18, leaves New Zealand on Tuesday to start a degree in financial analysis at a Louisiana university.
While she passed the US entrance exams with ease - scoring in the top 15 per cent despite having just two weeks to prepare - it was her ability on the track that got her the scholarship.
It will cover tuition, accommodation, health insurance, running gear and travel costs throughout the four-year course. The tuition and accommodation alone would normally cost $160,000.
Imogen completed her studies at Kerikeri High last year and in May started looking for scholarships. She was helped in her quest by members of a Facebook page for Kiwi runners; friends pointed her in the direction of McNeese State University in St Charles, a city known for its Cajun cooking.
Imogen contacted the college's running coach, who offered a full scholarship as long as she scored high enough in the US college entrance exams.
"I'm just so excited. I love everything new and getting out of my comfort zone. I'll be living and breathing running," she said.
With a lack of clubs, coaches and facilities in the Far North, Imogen has spent years travelling back and forth between Kerikeri, Whangarei and Auckland. She is currently a member of Auckland City Athletics, requiring a huge amount of travel for her and her mother, Maggie.
In St Charles, her studies, coach and facilities - the university boasts indoor and outdoor running tracks - will all be in the same place.
"It's going to fit in so much better. I'll definitely improve. I'll have the perfect environment for it."
Her father, Mike Hull, said Imogen had always had a gift for running. When the family lived in Kaitaia they went to Karikari Beach every weekend, where she would "just run up and down the dunes and all over the beach".
He encouraged her at first but self-motivation soon took over.
"When your first child leaves home there's always a bit of anxiety, but what an amazing opportunity. Who would stand in the way of that?"
DEBUT: Imogen won her first race, the Mangonui Schools Cross Country at Houhora Golf Course, aged 7. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Imogen started out, aged 7, at Taipa Athletics Club. She had always loved running but said she was "a bit lazy" until the age of 9 when another girl finished a metre behind her in the primary schools cross-country champs at Houhora.
"That got me a bit scared. I wanted to keep winning," she said.
When the family moved to Kerikeri she started running every day on the school field and in Waitangi Forest. In the past year she has placed third in the North Island 3000m and the New Zealand secondary schools 1500m, plus first in the Auckland clubs 1500m.
Imogen said she and her brother Alex, 15, also a keen runner, were lucky to have great support from their parents and the "incredible" running community in New Zealand, who had helped her get to America.
She urged other teenage athletes in Northland to research scholarships in the US on the internet, try to get noticed by scouts, and strive for good grades.
