Eights for the first time at Bolgoda Endurance Regatta
The Bolgoda Lake Rowing Club (BLRC) will host the inaugural Bolgoda Endurance Regatta on July 25 and 26 on the waters of Bolgoda Lake in Moratuwa. The innovator of this regatta, Sithira Wickramasekara, who lived with the dream of introducing a boat race that looks just like the famous century-old Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race on River Thames, has brought down two 8s especially for the occasion.
With the hype given among the rowers during the recent couple of months the BLRC states that closer to 100 competitors are set to row their hearts out. For the first time eight rowers each will sit on the newly brought down 8s and will take them along a course of six to 10 kilometres, a test of real skill and endurance.
Wickramasekara, who formed the BLRC in 2008 on a property owned by his family in Gorakana, Moratuwa by the Bolgoda Lake banks, had the vision of helping rowing to reach schools that were not famous for it. By today many of those schools produced strong rowing teams and oarsmen.
With the highest regard he had for armed forces, Wickramasekara gave room at his rowing ranch for teams from the Army, Navy and Air Force to train and compete and even taking the Rowing Nationals thrice to Bolgoda.
As part of expanding the interest in rowing and adding more glamour to the sport Wickramasekara spearheaded promoting of the two-coxed eights rowing regatta, with hopes to add another feather to his fleet in rowing. The two Ferraris in rowing as Wickramasekara describes about the two eights boats should create many pathways in rowing. For the starter his energetic team at BLRC hopes to debut the two boats through the inaugural Endurance Regatta. And the difference between the usual rowing regattas and the upcoming regatta will be the distance, which requires more endurance and power than the usual one or two kilometre races. This will be a time pursuit race starting from BLRC, with each boat starting on timed intervals. The race will expand at length from six to ten kilometres with one or two turns during the course, a new experience for local rowers.
“This regatta will consist of two categories, the Junior for Under-19s where the race distance would cover six kilometres and the Open category that would cover 10 kilometres. It will be open to all institutions as well, who will have the access to the two brand new eights rowing boats. These boats, we have seen on the waters of the Thames River in London where the annual Oxford-Cambridge, which is considered to be the oldest and most prestigious regatta, rowed in eights. On the success of this, the boats will be available for other dual battles such as Royal-Thomian, Ladies-Musaeus and Colombo-Moratuwa Universities and so on,” Wickramasekara detailed.
Wickramasekara’s vision will be the very first time when two-coxed eights rowing boats will be seen in action after 150 years of rowing in Sri Lanka. As he stated his club, the BLRC has a twin objective — raising the standards of rowing in Sri Lanka by developing its infrastructure to international standards and taking the sport beyond the confines of Colombo, where much of the youthful talent lies untapped. This innovation is the first time that a lengthy distance is raced in any kind of rowing boat. The regatta is also held under the guidance of the Amateur Rowing Association of Sri Lanka.
“It’s a dream come true, for me personally, for the BLRC and for Sri Lanka rowing in whole. It’s really going to be a big day for us. We have plans to let supporting boats follow the two 8s boats in contention, just as it happens on River Thames. We want all to get involved and live with it and experience the true glamour and spirit of rowing. Let’s hope that we could turn a new leaf in the sport,” a beaming Wickramasekara stated.