School children partner local rowing star at World Rowing Cup

Ruth Walczak of Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club with the school children

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Ruth Walczak, of Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club, partnered with pupils from Upton-by Chester High School at the World Rowing Cup on Friday 21 June, as Eton Dorney played host to over 1,500 school children as part of an initiative to get companies to sponsor tickets for school children to experience the racing action.

Before the event Ruth did a Q&A with the year 9 and 10 pupils on life as an elite athlete and was able to meet the children on the day after she had raced her heat.

The children also took part in rowing machine relay races and were able to meet and get autographs from some of the gold medal winning rowers from the London Olympics including Helen Glover and Alex Gregory.

Ruth, who was sponsored by local ISP, Zen Internet, said: “I was really pleased when Zen agreed to support the rowing tickets for the school children, I received sponsorship from Zen as a junior athlete, and so I thought they would be keen to be involved in this great opportunity.

“It was really good for the children to come and watch the racing and also see that we’re just normal people that have worked hard to get where we are in the sport of rowing. I hope that we have inspired the young people to work to achieve their goals in sport or whatever other area they choose.”

Ruth was racing in the lightweight single at the event, and in only her first season as part of the Senior GB Rowing Team, she was satisfied with her performance. Finishing just outside the medals in fourth place, Ruth is hoping to progress onto the medal rostrum in two weeks time when she faces some tough opposition at the next World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. She will then be off on training camp to Breisach in Germany to prepare for the World Championships in Korea in August.

"We were really proud to support the funding of free tickets for school children and to be involved with this event. We hope all the children had a great time experiencing the racing action and we would especially like to wish Ruth all the best for future events. We are sure she’ll be on the medal rostrum soon," said Caroline Taylor, HR Manager and a Head of Zen’s Social and Charities Committee.