Quest to break a seven-year hoodoo

*34th Royal-Thomian rowing regatta
* 37th boat race

By Bernie Wijesekera

The 34th Royal-Thomian regatta will be the main draw in the local water-sport draw next weekend.

S.Thomas’ College one of the pioneers in schools’ rowing in the country is marshaled once again by Ajith Goonawardene.

The Royal Team

The Thomians have had the custody of the all important rubber of the past seven years in spite of the two draws in 2003 and 2005. Now this year they will be looking to make it 8 in a row. This year the Thomians take their rows under Shannon de Silva, while Manil Salgado will be the deputy. Besides the above they have an experienced set of seniors to back them in Dathika Wickremanayaka and Milindra Kulugammane.

This year the Thomians have acquired new fiber boats donated by a set of their old boys. However it is sad to note that even though these two institutions have acquired new boats, the fours events will be rowed in the older burgershell boats owned by the Colombo rowing club.

Royal College started their rowing way back in the 1950’s. The first captain was Alavi Mohamed, A former president of the Colombo rowing club. Since then Royal College rowing has gone from strength to strength to be one of the leading campaigners in this sport in the country.

Experienced Gishan Karunanayaka leads the Royal crew this year with Lishan Wickremanayake as his deputy. Royal will be relying heavily on their senior oarsmen Dinouk Perera, Maalik Aziz and Yadav Chelliah, to bring back the T.Noel Fernando trophy back home to Ried Avenue.

The S. Thomas’ Team

The Reid Avenue boys are coached by Hiran Dorenagama assisted by Asiri Abheyaratne.

The last Royal-Thomian regatta ended up in a nail biting finish where both teams sharing the honours. The Royal College team was captained by Keshal Jayasinghe while the Thomian team was captained by Dineshka Aluwihare.

Thomians lead the series at 20-17. The first boat race was held in 1962 while the first regatta was held in 1966. The regatta was not held for six years between nineteen seventy three and nineteen seventy nine.