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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Sports |
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News Business Features
Editorial
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16-year-old girl wins Sri Lanka Spider Surfboards Junior title by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr. Sixteen year-old Cyril Andrahannadige surfing on a borrowed board won the Sri Lankan Spider Surfboards Junior Open Competition organised by the reigning British Women's Professional Surf Champion Ms Kay Holt and sponsored Spider Surfboards from South Africa and worked at the Arugam Bay in the Eastern Coast over the weekend. Also assisting in conducting this competition in the tsunami hit coast and to give the boys there a new lease of life were foreign visiting surfers were Darron de Louche from the United Kingdom, Tim from UK and Phil from South Africa, who offered their expertise to judge the competition, as well as Sri Lankan nationals Johnson and Nuwan and resident foreigners Wayno (Australian) and Janine Weeratunga (UK) who was one time Secretary of the Victoria and Country Resort and is now involved in tsunami relief work and community development work in the hills. The enthusiasm generated in this event was tremendous and the boys were in high spirit though they were too poor to own surf boards of their own, Surfing needs to be recognised as the newest emerging sport in Sri Lanka where it is reaching new heights and standards thanks to the two ladies Janine Weeratunga and Kay Holt who drive all the way from Kandy to Arugam Bay to conduct training sessions and competitions. When the British Professional Surfers Association's surfers from the United Kingdom arrive at Arugam Bay at the end of this month for the SriLankan Airlines sponsored Champions of Champions, they will not find it that easy as the locals have improved by leaps and bounds and will be in for a torrid time. Kay Holt has been conducting training sessions both theory and practical for the locals and has laid an excellent foundation for them to outperform their British counterparts in their home terrain. Coming back to the competition, the Andrahannadige brothers - Roshantha and Cyril dominated the finals worked off in one to two foot waves in perfect off share conditions. Roshantha was placed third 0.5 points ahead of Saman Saranguhuwage. Saman was the only 'goofy foot' surfer where he surfed with his back to the wave, which is technically more difficult, a sort of an unorthodox surfing. Sixteen-year-old Saman was unfortunate to catch a wave prior to the 'green flag' going signalling the start of the 20 minute final, which put him at a disadvantage in the rapidly deteriorating conditions at Arugam Bay that day. Roshantha Andrahannadige who attends school with his brother Cyril in the tsunami hit Panama only gets to surf at the weekends and holidays. His aggressive style where he performs big manoeuvres with a high degree of difficulty, often results in him falling on critical moves and no points is awarded for uncompleted moves. Milan Andrahannadige, a cousin of the two brothers was narrowly edged out of first place by 3.5 points, a very small margin when seen in the totalising of four heat judges. Although he was the most stylish surfer in the competition, his inability to maintain consistency let him down on the day. The judges unanimously agreed that Cyril, the elder of the Andrahannadige brothers who won all his heats was the most consistent surfer of the final, when he surfed two waves with three manoeuvres on each wave. On one wave he performed two 'floaters' - where the surfer rides along the crest of the wave. He followed this with a big 'layback' - a very high scoring manoeuvre where the surfer seems to have fallen off the foam, but gets back on his feet. Cyril was the only surfer to come out of a tube - where the wave totally envelopes the surfer and surfer emerges out of the front. Cyril was dumbfounded at the awards ceremony who he was presented with a brand new 'Spider' surfboard by the South Africa based Spider Surfboards Company. This donation was made to inspire tsunami affected junior surfers back into the water and to develop a junior surfing club at Arugam Bay. Darren de Louche from the Jersey Surf Board Association, donated new accessories, thus fully equipping Cyril for his maiden surf as Arugam Bay Junior Champion the next day. This highly successful inaugural event was organised by Kay Holt who is currently in Sri Lanka training for the BPSA/SriLankan Airlines Champion of Champions Surfing championship to be held at Arugam Bay at the end of this month. Kay Holt who is the defending champion of the event was awarded a free flight back to Sri Lanka which she has used to help the tsunami affected victims of Arugam Bay regain their confidence and get them back to the waves.
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Editorial | Security | Produced by Lake House |
