A Mexican mountain climber and a bathtub with a high speed of almost 200km/h were the subject matters of Rochester Primary School students involved in the Lions’ public speaking competition earlier this month.
Ruby Ettershank and Hugh Acocks were the school’s representatives in the years 5-6 section of the competition, which was eventually won by St Joseph’s Primary School representative Ruby Connelly.
The focus of Ruby Ettershank’s three-minute presentation, which was judged runner-up in the competition, was Mexican mountaineer Viridiana Álvarez Chávez.
She spent 2017 to 2019 climbing three of the world’s tallest mountains, completing all three climbs in just under one year and 364 days.
That earned her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, beating Go Mi-Sun, a South Korean climber who completed the feat in two years and two days in 2007.
At a school assembly last week, Ruby had the chance to share the presentation with the entire school, having first unveiled her enthusiasm for the Mexican climber’s feats in front of Lions members and students from Rochester, Nanneella and St Joseph’s.
Ruby’s decision to focus on Chávez wasn’t based on too much life experience, but she did say she had been to the mountains of New Zealand when she was six months old.
Hugh chose the world’s fastest moving bathtub as his subject matter.
Swiss engineer and racing driver Hannes Roth created an eye-catching contraption by attaching a bath to a go-kart chassis and fitting a four-cylinder Yamaha R6 engine with 120hp into the basin, along with a driver’s seat.
Roth took his motorised bathtub to the Dynamic Test Center in Vauffelin, Switzerland, where an average speed of 186.82km/h (116.08mph) over his two fastest runs was officially verified and on his seventh run he achieved a maximum speed of 189.9km/h (118mph).
“We got to pick our subject. The girl from Nanneella spoke about Medusa (of Greek mythology fame),” Ruby said.
“I like public speaking. We haven’t done debating yet, but plan to follow it up.”
Ruby said her mother was involved in the Rotary public speaking competition as a student and went on exchange to New Zealand, where and she spoke in front of 5000 people.
“My sister also did some pubic speaking in high school and at university. Mum was in the crowd, but my sister was at work,” she said.