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Sports

Lanka-Bangladesh Rowing International in Colombo
By Marlon Fernandopulle
Rowing will reach a new dimension when the first ever International Regatta between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be worked off on the 29th of June at the Beira Lake in Colombo.

Although rowing in Sri Lanka has been around for over 100 years,Sri Lanka has never competed against another country. However International Inter Club Regattas have been held in the past with the Madras -Colombo Regatta taking pride of place.

This months event will mark a significant event in the rowing history of Sri Lanka and will also serve as a forerunner for the Asian Games in South Korea in October where Sri Lanka intends to participate.

The Sri Lanka rowing squad for the regatta will be selected from the following.Chanaka Talpahewa,Lakmal Wickremage,Kushantha Weerasinghe,Asiri Abeyaratne,Osuman Fatharali, Thusitha Cooray,Heshan Henry, Mevan Perera, Sajeewa Perera,Eranga Mohandiramge, Shantha, Amaradasa, Isuru Perera, Divanka Aluvihara, Alavi Mohamed.

Inter-School rugby

Thomians crush Thurstan 39-10
By M.Shamil Amit
S.Thomas', Mt. Lavinia had things their own way when they thrashed Thurstan by 39 points (three goals, three tries, one penalty) to 10 (one goal, one penalty) in the inter-school rugby encounter at the Havelock Park yesterday. The Thomians led 22-3 at the short whistle.

The Thomians started with a bang when fly half Wasim Thajudeen put over a penalty with the game just three minutes old. A few minutes later flanker gave the Thomians their first try with Wasim adding the extra points. The Thurstanites fighting back succeeded in getting a penalty which Ronald Clerney had no difficulty in converting it.

Thomians struck back through No 8 Namal Rajapakse who captained the Under 15 national team to Taipei recently. The conversion was missed. The third try was scored by centre Kevin Cameron which one was converted by Wasim to give the Thomians a 22-3 lead when lemons were taken.

In the fifth minute of the second half the Thomians opened scoring when Kevin Cameron dodging many defenders went over for a try under the post with Wasim making no mistake with the kick. The Thurstanites playing with better understanding managed to work the line and score through second row Ronald Clerney who also added the extra points. With the Thomians making headway and penetrating the Thurstan twenty five yard line one of the Thurstan players was sent to the sin bin for rough play by referee Orville Fernando. The Thomians increased their lead when young Namal scored two successive tries and both the conversion was fluffed by Wasim and the Thomians securing a resounding 39-10 win.

Vidyartha down Prince of Wales
In the other game that preceded the Thurstan-S.Thomas' match, Vidyartha registered a 29 points (two goals, three tries) to 3 (one penalty) win over Prince of Wales. At the breather Vidyartha led 12-3. The try scorers for the winners were Malik Bandara (2), Shashika Wickramasinghe, Sanjeewa Alwis, and Suranga Ranaweera while Danushka Pushpakumara and Sanjaya Kumara converted one each. Shanaka Vishard put over the penalty for Prince of Wales. Referee:Nimal Somaratne - MSA

Carey trounce Richmond
Carey trounced Richmond by 25 points (two goals, one try, two penalties) to nil in the inter-school rugby encounter played at the Koggala FTZ grounds yesterday. Carey led 18-0 at the short whistle. Kamal Packeer (2) and Eranda Pramesh (1) scored the tries for Carey. With Eranda converting two of the tries and also putting over the penalty. Referee:Preethi Kumar - MSA

Hard fought win for DSS
In another interschools rugby encounter played at the Thurstan grounds yesterday between D.S.Senanayake College and Science College, DSS beat Science College by 27 points (one goal, four tries) to 17 (one goal, two tries). The score stood at 5-5 at the breather. Referee: Gamini Chandrasiri - MSA

Two games today
Two interschools rugby matches are scheduled to be played today at Havelock Park. The first game which will begin at 4.00. p.m. will be between Nalanda and St Joseph's while the other game is between St Peter's and Zahira scheduled to start at 5.00 p.m.-MSA

Kingswood down St.Sylvester's 17-9
Kingswood overcame some spirited resistance from St. Sylvester's to win their inter-school rugby match by 17 points (2 goals, 1 penalty) to 9 (three penalties) at Bogambara yesterday.

The winners started with their customary fury and in no time were 3-0 up through an Eranda Weerakkody penalty. After the Sylvestrian number eight had replied in like manner, Kingswood re-took the lead when skipper Dinesh Kurukulasuriya ran through around 25 yards to touch down.

This too was converted and before lemons Dissanaike made it 10/6 with another penalty. Dissanaike took the spotlight early in the second half with a superb 40 meter penalty conversion (10-9) the Sylvestrians played furiously to get the decider. A.K.

Rover Pin Points

What a wastage
How much of money is going waste by inviting cricket teams to play here during the South West Monsoon?
The Sri Lanka Cricket Board has incurred heavy losses by inviting the "A" team to tour here during the South West Monsoon by putting them up in 5 star hotels at tidy sums.
A lesson should have been learnt when the Sri Lanka "A" team toured Kenya and they were housed at the Gymkhana Club a low cost with all facilities provided.
Good planning is necessary to see no further occurrences of this nature.

Advance training for Lankan tennis players
The Sri Lanka Tennis Association has sent a team of 8 players for advanced training at the ITF Catalan Center in Barcelona. This training would help to prepare these players for International Competitions. The players are as follows:

Amrit Rupasinghe, Shyamalan Sabanathan Harshana Godamanna N.S. Nishendiran, Franklyn Emmanuel, Sashivarnan Sabanathan, Vindya Dayananda, Amita Arudpragasam.

The Catalan Center has players coming from all over the world to train during the summer months. It would help our players to play with top players from other countries and gain valuable experience.

To bring our players to this standard where they required advanced training in Europe was indeed a hard but pleasant journey for me and the coaches. Every session for the past year was worked with a goal in mind and determination to reach it.

We saw progress in every session. Players put in a lot of hard work and then when the time was right we tested them with as few south zone tournaments in India. We had a pleasant surprise, Nishendiran reached final in 2 tournaments and Franklyn won an All India ranking event. Then Amrit at 14 qualified for the Under 18 Clay Court Nationals in Chennai. We were getting noticed. The Indian press appreciated our players with excellent articles.

The Indian juniors treated us with caution. We had a goal, the Indian Nationals in New Delhi. Franklyn and Nishendiran went through the matches with upsets in every round. They won the doubles event in the Under 14 and reached the Semi-finals in the singles event surprising everyone with their quality of tennis. Back in Colombo everyone went through a lot of training again to prepare for team events.

Rain or shine the few for whom nothing else seemed important were there to train to carry Sri Lanka's flag into the international scene. In the World Juniors (Under-14) and the Junior Davis Cup (Under 16) the boys teams reached the Quarter Finals which is the best showing for our country. The Under 14 team consisted of Franklyn Emmanuel, N.S. Nishendiran and Udit Wickramasinghe. The Under 16 team consisted of Amrit Rupasinghe, Oshada Wijemanne and Shyamalan Sabanathan.

In Under 18 ITF competition which is a world ranking circuit of tournaments our boys and girls participated and made their mark. Harshana Godamanne reached the semi-finals, Vindya Dayananda, Jancy Paramanathan and Amrit Rupasinghe collected valuable points.

The International Federation selected Franklyn Emmanuel and N.S. Nishendiran to be a part of the ITF team to play tournaments in East Asia where they finished 1 and 2 respectively. They will also be a part of the ITF touring team to travel for 5 weeks in Europe.

With our targets set high, the players and coaches put in a lot of time and sweat every session. We also have a team of good back up line being developed who will take over from these players in the coming years. The committee of SLTA is doing more than necessary to support us but the sponsorship for tennis is inadequate.

The junior development programmes and the coaching programme need financial assistance and hence we need sponsors to come forward to support us. Our juniors who have made an excellent start in international tennis would benefit from the support and certainly make Sri Lanka proud in tennis too.

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