Musaeus fours crew win Gold in Calcutta
 

by Leslie Fernando

Musaeus College senior 'A' crew won a gold while S. Thomas' College senior 'A' crew won a bronze and St. Thomas' College junior team won a silver at the six-day Bengal Rowing Club Patton International School Regatta concluded on Sunday, May 21 on the Rabindra Sarobar Lake in Kolkata formerly Calcutta.

The boys and girls of St. Thomas' and Musaeus College went to India to participate at this regatta.

Musaeus College oarswomen rowed with authority and showed their hrowess to win a gold in the Fours event rowed over a distance of 500 metres. The Musaeus crew comprised regular rowers. Captained by Sachithra Jayatilleke, the team was versatile with champion rower Uvini Atapattu who was recently adjudged the 'Oarswoman of the Year' by the Colombo Rowing Club. Vinuri was a member of the team.

Jayasundera, Gimani Vidanagamage and Menaka Kohona defeated La Martinier Girls School, Culcutta in the final with a time of 2.12 secs.

Ajith Goonawardena - the coach of S. Thomas' and Musaeus told the 'Sunday Observer' that Musaeus College 'A' team proved themselves far superior to all their Indian rivals by bagging gold. They defeated Modern High School, St. Thomas Girls College twice before meeting La Martinier Girls School and beat them with ease.

Musaeus Senior 'B' comprised of twins Umanga Iddamalgoda, Ushika Iddamalgoda, Miyuru Jayatilake, Naduni Perera and Sanjeewani Kularatne also fared well reaching the 'quarters' in the Fours event.

Goonawardena said that the Thomians were unable to send their regular crews with three of their frontline rowers including captain Shannon de Silva and two others who established records at the 2005 Royal-Thomian Regatta, staying back on account of the ongoing A/L examinations. A crew was remoulded with four bow-side rowers to form the Thomian 'A' crew. Altogether two senior and a junior crew participated. The youngest rower at the regatta - Thomian Avinash de Silva was featured on Indian state television.

The Thomian senior 'A' crew of Rajitha Wickremasekera, Devaan Hallock, Sakya Kalupathirana, Manil Salgadoe, Yanik Salgadoe, won the Bronze Medal, losing twice to the stiff competition offered by students from the State of Chandigarh who took the Gold.

The Thomian junior team of Avinash de Silva, Amrick Varia, Sajeev de Silva, Uween Jayasinghe, Akshath Wickremanayake won the silver medal, being unfortunate to experience equipment failure at the closing moment of the event.

Thomian senior 'B' was represented by Naveen Moorthy, Jayan Peiris, Dhanushka Jayanetti, Sidath Munasinghe, Peter Christy.

Goonawardene added that for the first time in its history, a cash prize of Rs. 80,000 was on offer and a total of Rs. 23,000 was won by the Sri Lankan participants amounting to nearly 29% of the total prize value.

A surprise presentation was made at the prize distribution to the 'Most Disciplined Boys and Girls School' which were both awarded to boys and girls from Sri Lanka. The Bengal Rowing Club provided all facilities to the participating crews free of charge. The races were conducted during the morning sessions only because of the extreme heat conditions prevailing in Kolkata. The event was only for coxed fours.