Colombo Rowing Club holds 24th Ranfer Sprints 2013
Wednesday, 24 July 2013 00:38
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The Colombo Rowing Club (CRC) will hold the 24th Ranfer Sprints along the Beira Lake on 27 July 2013. CRC has remained one of the renowned and active clubs in the country, encouraging rowing as a popular sport whilst fostering lasting friendships within the fraternity. Now on its way to reach the 150th anniversary in 2014, CRC further extends itself to this mission by hosting a series of exciting regattas.
The Ranfer Sprints originated 24 years ago, when two stalwarts of the club, Nirmal Ranasinghe and Rohan Fernando (then captain of the club), pondered during a meet-up at a tea auction the development of rowing as a sport within Sri Lanka. It is at this brief discussion that Nirmal Ranasinghe suggested the introduction of an event that would provide the spectators a better opportunity of witnessing a race rowed from the start to the end. In order to execute such an event, the concept had to be organised as a sprint event in the form of a team relay.
It was the combined effort and commitment of them both that consequently resulted in Ranfer Sprints securing its own space in the Club’s rowing calendar. What is significant about this great event is the distance of 300 metres, instead of the usual 1,000 metres.
In recent times, games such as cricket and rugby have transformed themselves to include shorter versions of the games such as 50-over cricket, 20-20 cricket and similarly 10-a-side and 7-a-side rugby. These changes have brought in significant transformations to the entire gamut of the sport by providing much greater value to the spectators. Similarly, the Ranfer Sprints rowed over a short distance has created a far greater and growing spectator interest.
During the span of 24 years, the Ranfer Sprints has developed itself into one of the main regattas of the club. In 2005, the event was extended to the categories of ‘Ladies’ and ‘Masters’. This year’s participative teams comprise of Royal College, S. Thomas’ College, Ananda College, Ladies College, Musaeus College, Bishop’s College, University of Colombo, Gateway International School and Asian International School. In addition, the Sri Lanka forces such as the Army, Navy and Air force squads also will participate in their respective teams.
The CRC has allocated a separate day (27 July) to conduct this event on an exclusive basis where single sculls, pairs and fours will take place.
