Ruth Walczak: a Wardle rowing success

Ruth Walczak, an ex-pupil from Wardle Academy, visits the school to show Dr Graham Wright, Headteacher, her achievements since leaving the school

Ruth Walczak, an ex-pupil from Wardle Academy, visited the school to show Dr Graham Wright, Headteacher, her achievements since leaving the school.

Ruth is having huge success in rowing since leaving school.

Ruth started on the indoor rowing machines at school but soon progressed to Hollingworth Lake, learning to row on the water.

When Ruth and her twin sister Lucy were 16, they were selected and won gold at their first international race at the GB versus France Match.

Lucy went on to represent Team GB at the Junior World Championships and Ruth went on to make the finals at the under-23 World Championships between 2007 and 2010 in Scotland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Belarus.

Ruth’s major successes have largely come as a senior rower.

After graduating with first class honours in Design from Central Saint Martin (an art college in London), she moved to the lightweight category and won a bronze medal at the 2012 European Championships in a double in Italy.

In August shewon a bronze medal at her first Senior World Championships in the lightweight single scull in South Korea. This was especially satisfying after three successive fourth place finishes during the 2013 World Cup series.

Ruth played a variety of sports for school including netball and hockey, as well as being part of the brass bands. Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club started up an indoor rowing club when she was in Year 7 and Ruth, along with twin sister Lucy, were first in the queue to have a go.

Ruth said: “My goal is to get to the Olympics in 2016.

"It was very special to win a World Championship medal in Korea.

"As a junior, I missed out on selection for the Junior World Championships and as an Under-23 athlete I was told that I wasn’t tall and strong enough to be a successful senior rower.

"It does feel good to have proved quite a lot of people wrong.

"I couldn’t have got to where I am today without the support of my family and friends and I owe a lot to my coaches and mentors.”

This season Ruth is aiming for the World Championships in Amsterdam in August, but there’s a lot of hard training to do before then. Selection is decided in April each year, but before that everything is reset to zero and there are no guarantees;  places in the World Championship Team have to be earned every year.

Ruth is going to Majorca for a cycling training camp with the GB Team in November, and for her it is a dream come true to get to travel so often and to do the thing she loves so much as her job.