Six rowers to represent Sri Lanka at BIMSTEC 2021
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The team with the coaches -- (seated from left) Ashika, Lahiru (coach on tour), Pedro Lopez (Head Coach), Rifath Mohamed (Asst. Coach) and Gabrielle Standing (from left): Disas, Viruna, Tanita and Anithra
The Amateur Rowing Association of Sri Lanka (ARASL) will send a young and aspiring team of six oarsmen and oarswomen to represent the country at the upcoming Youth Water Sports Championship 2021, conducted by the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Coorperation or BIMSTEC to be held in Bhopal, India. The event will be held at the Upper Lake Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh in India from Novermber 22 to 27.
The team includes three boys and three girls, who have reached the highest level in rowing at domestic level and are good enough to don the national cap easily. The three boys in action for Sri Lanka are Disas Buwanesh Sooriyaratchi of Ananda College, Viruna Cooray of Royal College and Ashika Hansidhu Rathnaweera of S. Thomas’ College while the lasses are Gabrielle Analiese Estrelita Senanayake and Tanita Yu Mei Goonetilleke both from Ladies’ College and Anithra Minoli Fernando of Colombo International School .
“These are youngsters who have been brilliant for their school teams at junior and national levels. Of course unlike in the past we have had a bad period due to the current pandemic situation, yet we have managed to keep our athletes busy and fit through other sources and programmes. This is an event that will be most beneficial for these young athletes to gain exposure with international events on the cards for the coming year,” stated Sithira Wickramasekera, the vice president of ARASL.
Former Royal College oarsman turned rowing coach, Lahiru Herath will be leading the team as coach on tour. The upcoming event will be the first assignment for Pedro Sanz Lopez, a reputed and experienced coach from Spain with an immense wealth of international experience. Lopez will be working very closely with the six athletes assisted by his understudies Herath and Rifath Mohamed, who have very good knowledge about the local athletes and their capabilities.
“I believe that these youngsters are highly skilled for their age. We surely can up their current timings and I have given them individual tasks on how to achieve that. They are optimistic, and have shown great improvement,” coach Lopez stated about the team.
The organisers of the event have specifically set the age rule as athletes of 18-years-old while explaining the regulations which state that athletes who reaches the age of 18 and have competed at a Junior Rowing event until December 31, 2020 will be eligible to take part in the event. ARASL has picked the six athletes based on this criteria.
The Sri Lankan athletes will compete under the categories of Junior Men’s Single Sculls (JM1x), Junior Men’s Double Sculls (JM2x), Junior Women’s Single Sculls (JW1x), Junior Women’s Double Sculls (JW2x) and Mixed Double Sculls. Events will be held on courses of 1000 and 500 metres based on the category.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation is hosting the Youth Water Sports Championships as an invitational event among its member countries to participate in events in rowing, kayaking, canoeing and sailing.
Sri Lanka, however, will only send a team of six rowers for the regional event, where participation will be made by teams representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and hosts India. The entire cost including travel, boarding and lodging and local transportation of this six-day event will be met by the host nation India.