Draft:Kelly Ruddick



Kelly Ruddick is an Australian athlete, having had most success in racewalking. She was born in Footscray, Victoria, Australia, on 19 April, 1973. Soon after, she shifted to Ballarat, Vic, with her parents, Dawn and Kevin Ruddick, where she has lived ever since. She has brothers Christopher and David and four children, Jesse, Jules, Casey and Charlie.

Early life
Kelly was educated at Mt Pleasant Primary School and Mt Clear Secondary College, where her running ability was first noticed when she broke school records in athletics and cross country running. She joined Ballarat Harriers at age 15, and won the Ballarat outstanding athlete award at 16, being undefeated at running at the local athletic track that year. Numerous injury problems have plagued her athletic career, (e.g. shin splints) limiting her success, and at 35 years of age, she tried racewalking to see if she could cope without injury. National success at racewalking came soon after, but no doubt age was not on her side.



Achievements

 * Kelly has won 16 Victorian state road walk titles over championship distances of 10, 15, 20 and 35km.
 * She has been five times Victorian open 5k walk track champion.
 * She has won three Australian open racewalk road championships and the New Zealand open championship.
 * In 2013, she was the 4th fastest in the world over 5k.
 * She has been attended by extraordinarily bad luck however, in the matter of national selection.
 * In 2014, being Australian open 20k champion, she was guaranteed Commonwealth Games selection. A decision by the Glasgow organizers to withdraw the walk from the program for the first and only time in games history thus deprived her of an opportunity to gain Commonwealth selection.
 * At the World Championships in China in 2015, she was struck down with illness (vertigo) 48 hours before her race start and had to fly home.
 * At the World Championships at Eugene, she completed the race in a disappointingly slow time, and discovered after the race that she had walked 35 km with Covid.
 * As much of her best walking has been done at an age over 40, she has achieved many Australian Masters Athletics records and quite a few World Masters Athletics world records.
 * She has continued to compete with Ballarat Harriers for the last 35 years (In 2024).