Teen rowers beat big jolt to win through on water

Rowers (from left) Jack Armstrong, Cameron Clemence, George Sim, Jack Acland and Sam Bosworth make up the Christ's College lightweight fours team. Photo / Christine Cornege.

Like many other schools from earthquake-damaged Christchurch, Christ's College has had an uphill battle to get to the Maadi Cup.

But despite ongoing hurdles off the water, its rowers are proving their mettle on it.

The school has sent 39 rowers to the country's largest rowing regatta at Lake Karapiro and has already had notable success with seven of its teams qualifying for the A-finals.

But getting there hasn't been easy.

Several of the school's boats were written off in late January after the South Island Club Championships at Lake Ruataniwha when a gust of wind picked up the trailer they were on and threw them over a road.

"It costs about $40,000 for an eights boat and we lost three," said Christ's College rowing coach, Peter O'Connor. "We also lost seven fours."

Worse was to follow after the February 22 earthquake which not only caused extensive damage at Christ's College but destroyed the training facilities in the city.

"Our boatshed is munted and the place we used to train at, at Kerr's Reach, is stuffed too. We've had to leave town to train without having had much racing.

"It has affected us enormously. There are some kids here who have lost their homes, it's been tough."

To make up for it the team has spent time out of Christchurch training in Ashburton and as far away as Blenheim on the Wairau River.

But over the past month the Christ's College rowers have put their rivalries aside to train with other Christchurch schools Rangi Ruru Girls' College and Christchurch Girls' High School in Twizel. The students kept up with their schoolwork by combining study time in the evenings.

Jack Acland, who is part of the school's coxed lightweight fours team, said it was "kinda nice" studying with girls but his crew were now focused on their A-final tomorrow for which they had qualified fastest. He and his mates all knew people who had suffered in the quake.

"After the first quakes in September we pretty much thought we had dealt with it all and things were back to normal, but it just kept going," he said.

His fellow crew member Jack Armstrong said that despite their hardships the earthquake had steeled their resolve. "For me I think it has shown that we can't really get beaten even though all of these things are piling up on us," he said. "It hasn't been easy but we want to bring something back home to cheer the boys up."