The rare sight of a New Zealand flag on an athletics track just outside the capital of the United States will become more common next year.
Talented Wairarapa College athlete Alison Andrews-Paul has been awarded a full track scholarship to George Mason University, situated at Fairfax, just outside Washington DC,and will begin classes there in January. The university has more than 30,000 students and Andrews-Paul is determined to give them a true touch of Kiwi, saying she will be packing a New Zealand flag and some New Zealand T-shirts in her luggage.
The exciting opportunity for Andrews-Paul started to become a reality in June when the university's recruitment department emailed her father Wayne Andrews-Paul, who is also her coach, to express an interest in her becoming part of their track team. The Year 13 prefect still isn't 100 per cent sure how they found her but the approach did come just after she had achieved her big goal for this year of breaking the 2min 10s mark for the 800m.
After many Skype and email messages she was eventually offered the full scholarship and now both she and her mother, Sam, are busy dealing with the administration issues and endless forms needed to be filled out to enable her to study overseas.
To say Alison Andrews-Paul has an impressive athletics CV would be an understatement. Her specialist distances are 400m and 800m and she has proved to be among the best in her age group both here and in Australia. Numerous provincial titles have come her way. Just last Friday she was named winner of the Sportswoman of the Year at the Wairarapa secondary schools sports awards.
The next goal for Andrews-Paul is to qualify for the world junior championships in July and she believes there will be no better place to prepare for them than with the George Mason track team which is sponsored by Adidas. She will live on campus using the university's facilities which include an indoor track, indoor pool and a gymnasium.
It will be a different scenario from her training here which often consists of two or three weekly sessions on the Pelorus all-weather track and some interval training on the 900m long driveway from the mailbox to the family home.
Not having her father as her mentor will be a major difference too. He has been her coach since was 12 and she has also had the benefit of strong support from other family members.
