Christ’s College travels four hours for rowing practice

You wouldn’t think it after they took home the 2012 Maadi Cup, but Christ’s College rowing has been drastically affected by earthquakes.

Head coach Peter O’Connor said the squad, which had their own club house, had to make a four hour trip to Twizel for training following the quakes.

“We could not row on the river,” said O’Connor. “Our shed was totally demolished.”

Previously, team members had a 20 minute bike ride to Avon River, where they would train six nights a week. The squad now had to travel 275km to train on Lake Ruataniwha.

“We did a lot of training camps,” he said.

“After the second big earthquake we just packed up from school, all the rowers, and drove the whole 40 or so to Twizel and established a school base down there. We did rowing in the morning, study in the afternoon.”

This past season, Christ’s College has had seven training camps, lasting about a week long each time.

The squad’s training programme also changed, with members focussing more on off-water strength work, instead of stamina.

O’Connor doesn’t seem too worried about the changes though, saying “When you’re concentrating and rethinking, you’re developing. You’re forced to learn from it and adapt. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but it still has its stresses.”

O’Connor believes they “learnt a lot more about the sport as a result.”

Christ’s College’s shed is being rebuilt, and the squad should be able to train on the Avon River more next season.

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