Young oarsmen from Royal College led the scoreboard of the event, by racing down fine oarsmen from University of Moratuwa and S. Thomas College. In the meantime the ladies category was more diluted with a mixture of winners from Ladies College, Musaeus College and the ladies team from University of Moratuwa.
The regatta commenced early in the morning with heats and semi-final races which progressed through lunch time, filtering the best of the lot to fight at the finals. Stubb’s Quaich race was the first finals for the day, which was a tight competition between two Royal college pairs. The pair Amrith Fernando and Prathap Perera won the race by a five mili-second margin. To add up to the win, men’s double scull with Promod Rajaguru and Hashen Hettigoda beat the double scull from S. Thomas College. Hashen Hettigoda of Royal College had a great day in Beira with another clear win for the Wardrop scull race. The RCYC pair race was won by Mohemmed Mubarak and Achintha Ihalage from University of Moratuwa.
The ladies team from University of Moratuwa (UOM) and Ladies College had leading results in their respective category. Ishara Abbey from Ladies College finished the scull event beating Sasanda Chandrarathne from UOM. But the ladies pair event gave the opposite results, with UOM pair Sasanda Chandrarathne and Sachini Piyamal beating the Ladies College pair by a boat length gap. Musaeus College double Anuki Hewammalika and Binali de Alwis reached the pier faster than the Ladies College double adding a new win to the scoreboard.
The final highlight for the day were the fours in both men’s and women’s category. The ladies four event was a race between two teams from Ladies College, a clear win for Ladies College either way. But the Centenary Oars event for the men’s category had unexpected twists during the course of 1000m. A and B teams from Royal College(RC) and UOM raced down, with UOM and RC-B having a close lead in the beginning. But mid-course the RC-A team passed both the fours to claim their place in the final event of the day. Praveen Hapugalle, Prathap Perera, Amrith Fernando, Sajid Ajmal and Revatha Karunasundara were the proud winners of the Centenary oars.
