Ruth Walczak wins at British Championships

Emily Craig and Ruth Walczak won the lightweight women's double sculls pennant

Rochdale’s Ruth Walczak was a winner at this weekend's British Championships, held at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham, despite windy conditions which brought the event to a premature close on Sunday (19 October).

Ruth, who learnt to row at Hollingworth Lake Rowing club, was racing in a composite crew with London’s Emily Craig and together they won the lightweight women's double sculls pennant and were the only lightweight crew to progress to the final in an event where the openweight and lightweight rowers race against each other.

All of the GB Rowing Team squad members were at the British Championships representing their clubs and getting back into racing after the post-World Championships break.

Ruth said: "We had a really good result in the morning in the time trial and that put us in a really good position for the semi-finals. It was tough conditions but really fun to get out and do some racing as we’re moving into winter training and so flat out racing is a bit of a shock to the system. We worked together really well and learnt a lot as a crew in the few training outings we had, which we were able to take into the race. It’s a really good reminder of what we’re training for come summer racing and makes all the miles ahead of us in winter training that little bit easier”.

Ruth’s next race will be in two weeks time, in a lightweight quad for the Fuller’s Fours Head, which is a 7km processional race held on the River Thames in London on the historic course from Chiswick to Putney.