The 28th Sri Lanka Rowing Nationals concluded on the waters of the Diyawanna Oya. The regatta, held from April 4th-6th, was an event- filled with top notch Rowing on an international standard course.
The Colombo Rowing Club emerged National Champions winning the Open category for both Men and Women, with two gold medals in each. The over 18 category was dominated by Sri Lanka Navy, whose Men’s team took a clean sweep of four gold medals, while the Women’s team claimed two. The Under 18 championships were fought for amongst the school crews, with Royal College obtaining two gold medals and Ladies’ College earning three gold medals to take the trophies.
The prestigious Schoolboy Sculler trophy was won by Aaron John of St. Joseph’s College, with its partner the Schoolgirl Sculler being nabbed by Samaakhya Gajanayake of the CRC.
The new 2000 m course has shown to be well worth the investment, with timings reducing by roughly a minute compared to the previous Nationals held at the Bolgoda Lake. The regatta was notable for being conducted efficiently and punctually by the ARASL despite the roughness of the facilities available for rowers at the newly developed site. The ARASL has plans to construct a boat house to facilitate rowing on the course.
The Chief Guest at the closing ceremony for the event was Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage. Gotabhaya Rajapakshe, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development attended the event on April 5th due to the UDA’s role in developing the course.
The winners of the events are as follows:
Men’s Events
Open Category
Single Scull: Sajeev de Silva (CRC)
Double Scull: Sajeev de Silva &ShehanMuthugala (CRC)
Coxless Pair: KG Sanjeewa& HDS Samaraweera (SLAF)
Coxless Four: NGAN Gunawardana, BGDI Karunarathna, WGSL Gunarathna& HASG Hathurusinghe (SLN)
Over 18 Category
Single Scull: SBDPS Fonseka (SLN)
Double Scull: NGAN Gunawardana& WSK Wimaladasa (SLN)
Coxless Pair: JAN Madushanka& WPKMK Banda (SLN)
Coxed Four: VGN Shantha, ESVJN Premakumara, SACS Kumara, JC Nishantha& JM Hussain (SLN)
Under 18 Category
Single Scull: Aaron John (SJC)
Double Scull:Aaron John &Himendra Rodrigo (SJC)
Coxless Pair:AmanSideek&UvinSiriwardana (RC)
Coxed Four:Shavindra De Costa, LahiruHerath, KeshanRanasinghe, DulajRajaguru&KaveenRajapakse (RC)
Women’s Events
Open Category
Single Scull: Ishika De Silva (CRC)
Double Scull:Subashini Kularatne & Ishika De Silva (CRC)
Coxless Pair: Janethri Marapana & Vinuri Wickramasekera (MC)
Coxled Four: Ashani Welikala, Isabella Sansoni, Thiranya Fernando, Dharini Samarasinha & Marihah Idroos (LC)
Over 18 Category
Single Scull: SachitraJayatilaka (BLRC)
Double Scull: WAU Subashini & SHDN Sandamali (SLN)
Coxless Pair: HMBSU KumariHerath & WVSL Lakshani (SLA)
Coxed Four: SAS Madubashini, MPKJ Kumarasinghe, GGTU Sumanathissa, WAN Damayanthi&GLD Malkanthi (SLN)
Under 18 Category
Single Scull: SamaakyahGajanayaka (CRC)
Double Scull: YellaniRasaputhra&AnoushkaTissera (LC)
Coxless Pair: Thiranya Fernando & Isabella Sansoni (LC)
Coxed Four: Anika Ahamed, Davina Koch, Tarea Karunaratne, Anoushka Tissera & Tehani Walpola (LC)
