It was sweet revenge for the Royal at the Beira Lake yesterday. They won the 37th Regatta against S. Thomas’ by 34 points to 18 to erase from their minds the bitter defeat of 40 points to 12 that they suffered last year.
However, S. Thomas’ had the consolation of winning the 41st annual Boat Race in time of 3.07 seconds. The Thomian team consisting of Chamal Jayanetti(Bow) Shehan De Livera(2), Sajeev De Silva(3), Sajid De Livera (Stroke) and Peter Cristy (Cox) defeated the Royal team which comprised of Chirath Karunanayake(Bow)Ajmal Sideek(2), Jehan Samarasekera (3), Thivanka Jayatilleke(Stroke) and Dhanushka Perera(Cox)
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| Picture shows the victorious Royal B Fours team consisting of Chirath Karunanayake, Ajmal Sideek, Royal Captain Radika Weerasekera, Pradeep Maddumabandara and Pasan Ranaweera. |
Before the Boat Race, Royal had made sure they regained the T. N. Fernando Trophy. The Royal ‘B’ Fours team of Chirath Karunanayake (Bow), Ajmal Sideek(2) Royal Captain Radika Weerasekera(3), Pradeep Maddumabandara(Stroke) and Pasan Ranaweera(Cox) came from behind to beat their counterparts by sevens seconds in time of 3.09 seconds.
The Thomian crew consisting of Yohan Wijeratne(Bow), Uween Jayasinghe(2), Zidney Fazal(3), Trehan Manathunga(Stroke) and Amrick Varia(Cox) went into the race knowing that it was a must win situation for them. S. Thomas’ led up to about the middle part of the course, but fell away in the face of a fine surge from the Royalists.
Royal’s Chirath Karunanayake got the victors off to the perfect start. He easily beat Shehan De Livera of S. Thomas’ by nine seconds in the B Sculls winning in time of 3.35 seconds. Thomian Skipper and Sri Lankan Asian Games Representative Sajeev De Silva gave the Thomians some joy by winning A Sculls in a record time of 3,3 seconds. De Silva defeated Royalist Shehan Muthugala who crossed the finish half a second later.
After De Silva’s victory it was one way traffic as far as regatta was concerned. In the B Double Sculls Royal’s pair of Shehan Muthugala and Sahan Warnasuriya won their event in time of 3.22 seconds defeating the Thomian pair of Shelan De Livera and Chamal Jayanetti by five seconds.
In the A Double Sculls Royal’s pair of Jehan Samarasekera and Chirath Karunanayake crossed the finish line in a time of 3.16 seconds to defeat the Thomian pair of Skipper De Silva and Sajin De Livera by a thumping 15 seconds.
Though no points were awarded S. Thomas’ won Under 16 Fours which was held for the first time. The Thomian team consisted of Kemil Peters(Cox), Sandesh Bartlett(Stroke), Anuradha Nadarajah(3) Ming-Hua Chang(2) and Sachin Munasinghe(Bow) defeated Royal’s team of Mewan Jayatilleke(Bow), Dulaj Rajaguru(2), Keshan Ranasinghe(3), Ishan Perera(Stroke) and Chamal Gomez (Cox) by seven seconds.
Normal service was resumed with Royal winning the B Pairs in a time of 3.2 seconds. The Pair that won was Sanjiva Jayasuriya and Sahan Warnasuriya. Royal’s A Pair of Pradeep Maddumabandara and Radhika Weerasekera won their event by nine seconds.The C Fours which also carries no points was won by Royal whose team consisted of Supun Abayawardana, Sanjiva Jayasuriya, Sahan Warnasuriya, Ishan Perera and Mewan Jayatilleke crossed the time in a new record time of 3.15 seconds.
The Regatta was sponsored for the second successive year by T-Sips who are part of the Expolanka Teas Group. |
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