Royal oarsmen paint Beira Lake in Blue and Gold
Royal College Rowing outfit improved their tally to 20 wins to Thomians 23 wins at the 48th Annual Rowing Regatta and emerged winners of the coveted Double Oars Trophy and the Overall T.N. Fernando Memorial Trophy out rowing S. Thomas’ College at the Beira Lake last weekend.
It was the Royal captain Hashen Hettigoda, leading from the front guided his alma mater for the third successive win in the series. Hettigoda had a big share in this year’s edition as he won the first race senior scull in style timing 3.40mts. Later in the day the Royal captain together with Gavik Kuruppu renewed their own existing record of the Senior Double Sculls defeating the Thomian pair R. Nithushan and U.K.M. Premaratne with a time of 3.28mts to 3.34mts.
Royal winning six events that took their score to 46 to the Mt. Lavinia school’s six points grabbed by winning two events.
S. Thomas’ leading the series tally never lived up to their reputation in matching the skills of the Royalists as they won the prestigious Senior Boat Race which was raced by Prathap Perera, Sajad Ajmal, Charin Wijethileke, Hashen Hettigoda and Avishka Jayaweera.
The inform Royal with a very healthy record in 2017 dominated the waters of the Beira Lake combined together made the school proud in exhibiting high quality of sportsmanship winning the hearts of everyone present at the venue.
Hashen Hettigoda was adjudged the Most Outstanding Oarsman for the second year in succession for his excellent performance in leading Royal College at the 48th edition of the competition.
A jubilant Royal skipper speaking to the Education Times said "It’s a great achievement to win the regatta overall for consecutive years and I hope that Royal will maintain that trend in the future also. I’m delighted to be adjudged the Most Outstanding Oarsman for two years which benefitted the school in this achievement. Under the motto ‘Defend, Retain and Dominate’ Royal took to the water with a main idea of winning with respect to the opponent who cannot be underestimated".
He also paid a rich tribute his crew for contributing to their best ability to win the coveted silverware. - Lakshman Ranasinghe;
Pic by Ranjith Perera