A much awaited event in the rowing calendar hit ‘start’ on the 16th June 2016 in the Beira Waters at Colombo Rowing Club to seek the best individual talent. The JOES Sculls is a competition hosted by St. Josephs College Rowing Crew for the rowing community to select the best sculler. This three day event consists of scull and double scull events for both men and women, with age groups ranging from under 14 to open. This Sculls race has been one of the main events occupying the rowing calendar in the past.
The second day of the Joes Sculls started with the heats and the day was closely followed with semi- final and final races in under 13, 14, 16, 18 and open categories for both men and women. T.M.Dissanayake from St. Peter’s College rowing team has emerged first in the under 13 men’s sculler event whereas T.Y.Botejue from Bishops College (BC) secured the gold spot in the women’s. It should be specially noted that the under 13 women’s category displayed a shorter time in finishing the race than their competitors in the men’s crew.
Under 14 women’s double scull race was one of the finals for the day. Team CRC with H.Hettigoda and P.Hewammana finished their final with 2 min and 43 seconds while the team BC paired with T.Y.Botejue and D.Weerakkody were more than 15 seconds behind on the time, though they reached the end line first in their final group. The day was also filled with semi-finals for the sculls and double sculls in the under 16 men’s’ category.
The men’s under 23 finals was another treat to watch, the scullers from Sri Lankan Army crew racing against each other towards the finish line. Kanchana Weerakoon took it home to cross the finish line faster than Wathsala Marasinghe who was not fast enough as his mate to grab the gold. In the third lane was the sculler from UOC stayed away from the race among same teammates.
The day came close to an end for the heats and semi-finals giving a night rest for the scullers to shine back at the finals. The 18th of June will be the final day for Joes Sculls and it is expected to see a lot of individual hidden talents to be displayed at CRC.
