Ananda edge S. Thomas’ to claim Under 20 Coxed Fours
Just yards away from the finish line, and lagging a boat-length behind their rivals from S. Thomas’, Ananda College shifted gears to inject a burst of energy into their oars and tear across the line in pole position, to claim the Under 20 Coxed Fours, one of several races staged at the 2nd Sri Lanka Schools Rowing Nationals, worked off at the Colombo Rowing Club yesterday.
The win clinched them the Under 20 age group, and converted the Nationals into an extremely fruitful outing after they earlier secured the Under 18 age group with some superlative rowing on the Beira in the Double Sculls and the Coxed Fours.
The triumphant Anandian Under 20 team comprising Buddhima Wickramaratne (bow), Sachintha Wickramasinghe (two), Sriwanth Kothalawalle (three), Ashan Pitiyarachchi (stroke) and Subod Gunasekara (cox) rowed to victory in 3 minutes 32 seconds, three seconds ahead of S. Thomas’.
A Bishopian Fours team celebrates. Pic by Amila Gamage
Bishop’s College wreaked havoc in the girls’ category, winning in all but the Under 18 category, which was seized by Ladies’ College.
However, the Bishopians were unable to claim the Coxed Fours title after they stumbled in the face of a imperious performance by the Chanika Gonnetilleke (bow), Davina Koch (two), Anoushka Tissera (stroke) and Ashmith Gunaratne (cox) who wrapped things up in 4 minutes 22 seconds.
Bishop’s also left a deep imprint on the Under 14 and Under 16 races. They notched up notable displays in the Under 16 (Kavindya Walalawela, Anishka Nanayakkara) and Under 14 (Chaashya Samarakoon, Anouck Subasinghe) Double Sculls.
Meanwhile in the boys’ junior divisions, Prince of Wales and Royal College conquered the Under 14 and Under 16 age categories. The Royalists demarcated their dominance in the Under 16 Pairs event when Praveen Hapugalle (bow) and Prathap Perera (stroke) romped to victory several seconds ahead of Heshal Peiris (bow) and Sachin Arulanandam (stroke) of St. Joseph’s College.
The Cambrians sealed the Under 14 group with a fine row in the Under 14 Double Sculls through Udesh Galappaththi (bow), Pasindu Nipunajith (stroke), who took gold, along with silver (Pasindu Nipunajith and bronze (Udesh Galappaththi) finishes in the Single Sculls events.
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