Top talent to hone her skills at Princeton
Junior standout Hui hopes training in the US will make her a contender at the Asian Games
Hong Kong will lose one of its most talented junior athletes in August, but that could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Mary Hui Kam-man has been at the forefront of junior women's athletics for the past two years, but in eight weeks she will leave for a four-year degree course at Princeton in the United States, where she will join the university's track and field team.
Hui sees this as the first step to improving as an athlete, and if everything goes according to plan, she hopes to emulate some of the athletic achievements that Maggie Chan Man-yee accomplished after she moved to the US 17 years ago and hurdler Chan Sau-ying before her.
Princeton was Hui's first choice of university, although she also considered the London School of Economics and Loughborough University, also in the UK, among others. "My studies will take priority over athletics ... [but] I was determined to choose a university with a strong sporting background," said the 19-year-old Happy Valley resident.
"I had to wade through loads of pages on the LSE website before I found anything connected to sport, but on the Princeton website the sport section was very easy to find," added Hui, a former pupil of South Island School and also a boarding student at Li Po Chun United World College in Wu Kai Sha.
Hui's rise to become the Hong Kong junior record holder of both the 3,000m steeplechase and the 15km is all the more remarkable because fewer than three years ago, she was just a recreational runner.
"I've always been quite active and I've been running since I was in primary school. However, I was not a member of a running club so I didn't enter many local races," added Hui, who lists adventure racing, kung fu and Muay Thai boxing among her sporting hobbies.