Rowing: Lasses from Musaeus row away for a fine season

Musaeus College marked a perfect finish to their rowing season with morale boosting wins at the Schools Rowing Championship held during the final week of October and first week of November.   This well deserved victory was followed by their narrow, yet thrilling defeat against traditional rivals Ladies’ College at the annual LC-MC Regatta.   The rowing calendar, which begins early for schools and spans till late October with the Schools Nationals and Open Nationals signaled the end of yet another grueling season for the Musaeus oarswomen.   Musaeus was on a rebuilding phase, grouping up a young team from a year that tested their resolve.   Their coach M. Maurice, along with the schools administrators worked hard on the physical fitness and the inborn skills of the young lasses to help the Musaeus Rowing Crew shape up and get back to winning ways.   The perfect outcomes started to come out evidently with months of dedicated work grooming them for the final dash of competitions which began in September with the Ranfer Sprints, known better as the Twenty20 version of rowing.   The Ranfer Sprint event, a competition designed to test the strength of rowers on a shorter burn along a course of 300 meters, ended with renewed rivalry between traditional rivals Ladies and Musaeus colleges.   Musaeus narrowly beat the Ladies to win the overall championship of Ranfer Sprints, by just two points.   With the success the Musaeus Rowing Crew focused on their major event, the 12th edition of their annual LC-MC Regatta.   With nine events to determine the overall championship and the two four’s carrying the highest points, the competition was at its absolute best with both schools winning three events each before the two main races commenced.   The B4 event was convincingly won by the Musaeus team raising the points to 25-17 by Ladies but the final event, the Boat Race that would decide the regatta, the Ladies A4 came on top stretching their scores to 27, going past the valiant effort by Musaeus earning 25 points in total.   The season ending regatta was again held at the Colombo Rowing Club, and this year’s Schools Nationals drew 29 teams with over 300, rowing after the sport becoming an inclusive sport among many presently.   The major honours in Women’s rowing were shared between Musaeus, who won six gold medals and Ladies, who took three gold medals. Ladies emerged joint champions along with Visakha in the Under-14 age category and they also took the Under-18 title.   Musaeus triumphed in both Under-20 and Under-16 categories, narrowly missing the Under-18 championship, to settle in for a silver medal.   Overall the Musaeus Rowing team won six gold medals and four silver medals.   The Boat Race of the day was worked off as a showpiece event for the chief guest and three schools, Ladies, Musaeus and Bishop’s vying for the coveted prize.   Four minutes and a second later, the Musaeus crew crossed the finish line after a perfect race to end this year’s season with success while Ladies came in as runners-up.   Fierce competition among these two schools brought out the best in each child, leaving rowing as the ultimate winner.   They dedicate much of their teen lives to a discipline that is both physically and mentally challenging, and the crews as they are called, has the ability to focus more on chasing dreams wear the medals at the end of a testing season.   The energetic Musaeus Rowing Crew, captained by Dilki Wijesekera, comprised Ranuli Wickramasekara as vice-captain, Mayanthi Weerakoon, Ashvini Jayatilleke, Senuri de Silva, Binali de Alwis, Megara Wijemanne, Maedhini de Alwis, Janisha Rathnayake, Isuri Kumarasinghe, Thamadansi Hewage, Nethmini Sirimanne, Dinara Fernando, Dinuri Gunarathne, Sneha Pathirana, Randini de Alwis, Thanushi Perera, Nildhi Fernando, Miyushi Dharmaratne, Nethuli Samaranayake, Janethri Marapana, Malki Wejesekara, Anuki Hewamallika and Niseni Hewamallika.