75th Madras-Colombo Regatta held in Chennai

The 75th regatta in a 114 year history of rowing between the Madras and Colombo Rowing clubs was held in Chennai on the Adayar River last week.

Lead by the captain Maheel Gamage over 33 members representing the Colombo Rowing Club (CRC) in the Men’s and Women’s events traveled to Madras on 18 July 2012 for this historic event. 

The team from Colombo was later joined by the President of the Colombo Rowing Club John de Niese, several Committee members of the CRC and a few senior oarsmen involved with the Madras/Colombo regatta since the 1970s.

As per tradition the Madras Boat Club who played host this year, invited the Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Madras, Ambassador R.K.M.A. Rajakaruna to grace the occasion as the Chief Guest. Contrary to the recent incidents where official visitors from Sri Lanka were turned back from Tamil-Nadu against politically motivated protests, the large contingent of members from the Colombo Rowing Club received a warm welcome from time they set foot in Chennai.

The association between the Madras Boat Club and the Colombo Rowing Club which developed over a century ago weathered many ups and downs and held solid not to be swayed by petty political bickering on the current accusations against Sri Lanka by some politicians in Tamil-Nadu.

The Colombo Rowing Club emerge victorious at the 75th Madras Colombo Regatta concluded on 21st July, by winning 6 out of the 8 races in the men’s category including the trophy for the prestigious boat race as well as the Deepam trophy awarded for the overall winners. However, in the ladies category the Colombo Rowing Club Girls won only two Sculling events loosing the “pairs” and “fours” events to the Madras ladies.

The men’s Single Scull A was won by Sajeev de Silva CRC beating Karn Rao MBC and B won by Shehan Muthugala CRC beating Hassan Khaleeli MBC. Double Scull A won by Shehan Muthugala (B) Sajeev de Silva (S) CRC beating Lakshman Satish (B) Hassan Khaleeli (S) MBC and Double Scull B was won by Suwin Karunaratne (B) Dhanushka Jayanetti (S) CRC beating Vinay Vennkatraman (B) Karn Rao (S) MBC.

Coxless Pair A was won by Arvind Natarajan (B) Joshua (S) MBC  beating Shehan Muthugala (B) Sajeev de Silva (S) CRC and B won by Chamal Jayanetti (B) Zydhney Fazal (S) CRC beating Sharan Sanjay (B) Niranjan Padmanabhan (S) MBC.

B Coxed Four was won by Sharan Sanjay (B) Inan Diwan (2) Niranjan Padmanabhan (3) Darshan (S) Rohit Balaji (Cox) MBC beating Ashan Pittiarachchi (B) Nilusha de Alwis (2) Siriwanth Kotalawala (3) Suneth Abeyratne (S) Binura Gamage (cox) and the Men’s A Coxed Four rowed for the prestigious boat race trophy won by Manilka Guneratne (B) Sajeev de Silva (2) Shehan Muthugala (3) Pradeep Maddumabandara (S) Peter Christy (cox) CRC beating Arvind Natarajan (B) Joshua (2) Sidarth Sunil (3) Janeshwar Raja (S) Anirudh Sanjeev (cox) MBC.

The ladies coxless pair was won by Aditi. S (B) Ashwathy Nair (S) MBC beating Anisha Gunasekara (B) Anishka Gomez (S) CRC. Single scull won by Ishika de Silva CRC beating Iha Diwan MBC, double scull won by Ishika de Silva (B) Amani Tissera (S) beating Sankavi Puhazhendhi (B) Iha Diwan (S) MBC, coxed four won by Ditika (B) Roshini (2) Iha Diwan (3) Sankavi Puhazhendhi (S) Sahana (cox) MBC beating Amani Tissera (B) Anisha Gunasekara (2) Anishka Gomez (3) Shiyanka de Zylva (S) Shiloh Sumanthiran (cox) CRC. Ladies Double Scull exhibition race which carried no points was won by Deshika Herath (B) Samaakhya Gajanayake (S) CRC.

Masters coxed four was won by the combined Colombo and Madras oarsmen of John de Niese (B) Ashwin Chesetty (2 )Lushantha De Silva (3) Sriram (S) Pasan Ranaweera (cox) beating the combined crew of Mouli (B) Maheel Gamage (2) Raghu Varadarajan (3) Dhanushka Jayanetti (S) RadhaKrishnan (cox).

The day’s racing was followed by a colourful prize distribution event where in addition to awarding the trophies to the winners, both clubs exchanged goodwill souvenirs underlining the strong friendship between the two rowing clubs across the Palk-strait.

T. Sumanthiran, Member of Parliament representing the TNA, was a surprise visitor at the regatta to witness his daughter rowing for the Colombo Rowing Club ladies team against the Madras Boat Club.  At the prize distribution ceremony several speakers from both clubs including the Chief Guest, Ambassador Rajakaruna, Sumanthiran and the President of Sri Lanka Rowing Rohan Fernando underlined the century old friendship between the two clubs and emphasising the importance of sports diplomacy to sooth current political tension between Tamil-Nadu and Sri Lanka.

The traditional regatta night went on till the early hours of Sunday with music and dancing enjoyed by team members at the well maintained function hall of the Madras Boat Club. In 2014 the Colombo Rowing Club will turn 150 years.

With the fine sportsmanship and the winning streak displayed by the oarsmen and oarswomen of the Colombo Rowing Club, rowing in Sri Lanka could look forward to good times ahead.