Avon took home 31 medals – the most of any Christchurch club and second-most for the regatta behind Otago’s Dunstan Arm on 38.
Canterbury won 14, while St Bede’s College had the third-most for Christchurch crews with 13.
Union and St Margaret’s College both won 11.
Avon director of rowing Logan Keys said it has put them in good stead ahead of the South Island championships, which will also be in Twizel from February 1-2, and the national championships at the same venue from February 18-22.
“Four weeks until nationals, we’ve just got to make sure we keep getting faster quickly and have some smooth events,” he said.
“By South Islands we’re intending to have what we think we’ll be racing at nationals.”
With three high-profile competitions in just five weeks, keeping the rowers fit and healthy was the priority, Keys said.
“The high performance group has access to the Apollo Centre and they train there with High Performance Sport New Zealand.
“The other athletes have gaps in their programme to get strength and conditioning in the week as well.
“Keeping them healthy, that was the biggest frustration we had at Canterbury Champs, 25-30% of the squad had little sicknesses hanging around.”
Sixteen Christchurch clubs and schools took home medals at the championships – with Cashmere High School winning the women’s open coxed octuple sculls for the first time since its rowing programme began in 2012.
St Bede’s dominated the under-17 boys’ coxed four – Cooper Titterton-Leckie, Carter Connolly, Brody Clemence, Alex Walters and Matthew Casey (cox) won, closely followed by schoolmates Andy Peterson, Darragh Lynch, Jeonghu Oh, Alex Cowan and Luca Dredge (cox).
