Rowing: Army take top honours at 31st National Championships

Not glamorous, but spreading fast. That about sums up the sport of rowing which concluded its 31st. Championships at the Diyawanna Oya on Saturday (17).
 
The Army’s Oarsmen and Oarswomen came up trumps at the 2016 National Championships even as they did last year. 

The Army came up with 13 medals (5 Gold) while Navy and Royal had six in the three categories – Open, Over 18 and Under 18. 

The last named – Royal – performed best amongst the boys’ schools. 

The Army (8 Medals) and the Air Force (6 Medals) took the top spots in the Open and Over 18 categories for women. 

Ladies College (6 Medals) proved unstoppable in the Under 18 event. 

Organised by the Amateur Rowing Association of Sri Lanka, the event saw 18 teams from Affiliates participating. 

There were teams from the Army, Air Force, the Navy, Colombo Rowing Club, Bolgoda Lake Club as well as schools such as S. Thomas’, Royal, Ananda, Nalanda, Ladies, Musaeus and Visakha. 

The Rowing Association sent two participants Samaakhya Gajanayake (Visakha) and Nissanka Somaratne (Army) for the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Chungju, South Korea. 

A rower from Musaeaus and another from Ananda represented the country at the Junior World Championships. 

Two more will be sent for a training programme in Pattaya, Bangkok. 

The NOC has been facilitating the development of this sport by arranging for an Australian coach who visits thrice a year. 

With some boats costing as much as 1.5 Million. 

Rowing is an expensive sport. 

For obvious reasons, it has not spread outside the Metropolis. 

Sometimes boats are shared but more and more affiliates are buying their own boats. 

Originally, these events were worked off on the Beira. 

Later on, at Bolgoda. But for the last four years, the venue has been the Diyawanna Oya which has a 2000 metre racing area and four lanes. 

The earlier ones had only a 100 metres and two lanes. 

This is in accordance with international practice.