Published: Thursday, 4th March, 2010 9:00am

Oarsome student is going for gold

Comments (0) | Print | Email

A COLLEGE student has thrown herself in at the deep end by combining A Levels with international canoeing.

Jess Walker, 19, represented Great Britain at the Beijing Olympics and is combining training for future competitions with her studies at Bracknell and Wokingham College.

Jess, who lives in Henley and trains at Bisham, said: "Life's pretty hectic! I'm training three times a day, six days a week right now. It's too cold to canoe over here, so I'm running, swimming, and going abroad to cross-country ski and get proper practice in warmer water."

Jess was only 18 when she entered the sprint racing at Beijing in 2008 and she has also won gold and silver medals at the Junior European Championships, as well as two bronzes at the Junior Marathon Championships. She said: "It's not an exaggeration how amazing the Olympic Games are. Beijing was incredible and I only want to make sure I get to London 2012.

"After that I'll have a year out, and then I'll be thinking about Rio 2016. I want to win the most medals I can - winning one gold with the current crop of Team GB athletes is hardly enough to get noticed any more, so I want two or three. At the moment I just want to train and take each day and each year at a time." She is studying a media course and said: "It's difficult to squeeze the work in around my sport and it'll only get worse as 2012 gets closer.

"I think it's very important to make the effort though as a sporting career is pretty short, and I'll need to have something else to do when I can't compete any more. I'd like to go into sport journalism when I finish canoeing."

Jess is one of 20 athletes supported by GB Canoeing, the World Class Performance division of the British Canoe Union. She also gets help balancing sport with her studies from staff at the college.

Lee Spindlow, college sports co-ordinator, said: "Part of the college's sports commitment is to make sure more elite athletes, like Jess, are spotted and given the help to make sport their career.

"I wish Jess lots of luck for her ambitions and hope the college can boast more Olympians in years to come."