Madushan regains title as tourists revel at Arugam Bay
With his third back-to-back win in the National Surfing Championship Series, Lakshitha Madushan, a youngster from the southern coastal belt, not only claimed the National Surfing Championship 2020 held in Arugam Bay last weekend, but also topped the national surfing ranks with 3000 points.
The Open and National Surfing Championship 2020, which coincided its culmination with the International Tourism Day had many plusses and probably no minuses in the perspective of the competitors.
From a total of 97 surfers representing 13 countries, Sri Lankans managed to dominate the show with Madushan claiming the National title and hometown favourite Asanka Sanjeewa pocketing the Open title while the Women's title was won by South Africa's Nikita Robb.
The importance of this year's Open and National Surfing Championship came as positive and higher rate on many aspects. The event attracted the targeted starving local surfers and more importantly foreigners, who were held up in Sri Lanka due to the coronavirus pandemic in large numbers.
The Arugam Bay event was the third and final installment of the National Surfing Championship, following the first leg held earlier in Hikkaduwa and the second held in Madiha, Matara before the outbreak of the pandemic. Both these events were won by Madushan, who completed a whitewash at Arugam Bay. According to the upgraded national surfing rankings later after the event, National champion Madushan retains his rank after being the cynosure of the large gathering of surfing enthusiasts.
The 21-year-old former student of Sri Siddartha Vidyalaya, Weligama, who represented the Surfing Club of his hometown, was elated by the fact that he could regain his title from 2018 and was thrilled to see surfing return to action more than anything else.
"I come from a town near the coastal belt in the south. So it was natural for us as youngsters to imitate the foreign tourists which gave me the interest to begin surfing at 11. We live in a country surrounded by the sea and obviously this sport has the potential to reach international status. Individually we are engaged in this sport because of our enthusiasm and if the local surfers are trained and nurtured well, Sri Lanka has the potential of creating winners on the world stage," Madushan said soon after his win.
Arugam Bay Surf Club's
Asanka Sanjeewa was placed second while Lesitha Prabath, was placed third. Lesitha bettered his national ranking from fourth to second with 2130 points. Another surfer representing the Arugam Bay Surfing Club, Praneeth Sandaruwan, who finished fourth in the National category, was placed third in the latest national ranking with 1895 points.
"It's always a nice sight to see the return of surfing at this level. We have had a tough time during the past five to six months as dependents from beach activities. That's the profession of many youngsters from this area besides being competitive surfers. It will be good to see the support of the
higher authorities of both sports and tourism to set a comprehensive programme to build up both segments, which fall in line as one for us," an overjoyed Prabath said, following the awards ceremony.
Arugam Bay's Asanka Sanjeewa outsmarted competitors from 12 other countries to win the Open title, in which Israel's D. Bar and Australia's Liam Mourad was placed second and third respectively while Sri Lanka's Milan Hennadige was placed fourth. The Women's Championship was won by South African Nikita Robb, followed by Estonia's Kroot Laesson at second and Sri Lanka's Sunara Jayamanne at third. Belgium's Lien Uten finished at fourth.
A large gathering of spectators, notably foreigners, were present last weekend at Arugam Bay, while many locals travelled from Colombo, Hikkaduwa, Matara, Galle and other surfing points in the East coast. Among them was an Australian surfer Sam North, who opted out of the competition due to unavailability of slots in the Open category. But he was happy to take an energetic break filled with surfing action.
"It's nice to have a change of this sort, with a surfing competition happening over the weekend. I'm one of the many tourists stuck here in Sri Lanka due to the ongoing pandemic, and we were starving for some good activity. We came down to Arugam Bay all the way from Galle and it's nice to see everybody having a good time," an elated North said.
Including Sri Lanka, surfers from France, Australia, Israel, Argentina, Russia, Poland, South Africa, United States of America, Spain, Estonia, Italy and Belgium, were seen in action on both days, where the first day's activities ended disastrously following a heavy downfall. But the organisers - Surfing Federation of Sri Lanka, headed by Hiran Ukwatte and Lanka Sportsreizen headed by Thilak Weerasinghe in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, Ministry of Tourism and the two sponsors - Mobitel and Lin Asia Holdings, acted swiftly to conduct the second day's activities smoothly.