Crowds flocked to the Colombo Rowing Club yesteday, 25th June, to witness the second oldest boat race in the world, the 77th Madras Colombo Regatta.
Winning four of the eight events and scoring thirty two points in total, the Madras Rowing Club won the Deepam Trophy for the overall winner of the Men’s Category. However, it was the Colombo Rowing Club that dominated the women’s races by winning all four events and scoring twenty five points, to carry the Adyar Trophy for overall winner of the Women’s Category.
Photo Album – 77th Madras Colombo Regatta
After weeks of tiresome training and days of gruelling selection processes, the battle was on for thirteen races at the Beira Lake. The Men’s events were worked off for both A teams and B teams. The first event of the regatta, the Men’s B sculls was won by Colombo Rowing Club (CRC), giving them the first two points. The B teams of Colombo Rowing Club continued to win all their races whilst the Madras Boat Club’s (MBC) A teams won all their races. The most looked forward to and interesting race of the evening, the Boat Race of the Men’s A fours was the decider and was won by MBC giving them 12 points to win the Men’s Championship. The Lankan women made up for the loss by the men by truly conquering the Beira by winning all four races – the Women’s scull, pair, double scull and four.
Following is the full breakdown of the results of the regatta:
Men’s events
| EVENT | Colombo Rowing Club | TIMING | Madras Boat Club | TIMING | WINNER – POINTS |
| B SCULLS | Suhith Alexander | 4.05 | Sidesh Nair | 4.41 | CRC – 2 |
| A SCULLS | Hashen Hethigoda | 3.48 | Rahul Baliga | 3.43 | MBC -6 |
| B PAIRS | Kaveen Rajapakse, Praveen Weerakkody | 3.36 | Philip James, Saketh Reddy | 3.37 | CRC – 4 |
| A PAIRS | Chavin Wijetilleke,
Lasindu Gamage |
3.56 | Rahul Baliga, Siddharth Sunil | 3.43 | MBC – 8 |
| B DOUBLE SCULL | Lasaru Kudaligama, Hashen Hethigoda | 3.36 | Vishal Sudhakar, Abishek Narayan | 3.59 | CRC – 4 |
| A DOUBLE SCULL | Kemil Peter, Deshitha Henanayake | 3.36 | Rahul Baliga, Siddharth Sunil | 3.27 | MBC – 6 |
| B FOURS | 3.33 | 3.34 | CRC – 8 | ||
| A FOURS | Sajeev de Silva, Shehan Muthugala, Uvin Siriwardena, Manilka Gunawardena, Peter Christy (cox) | Rahul Baliga, Siddharth Sunil, Rohit Ravindra, Tushar Bansal, Anirudh Sanjeev (cox) | MBC – 12 | ||
| TOTAL | 18 | 32 |
Women’s Events
| EVENT | Colombo Rowing Club | TIMING | Madras Boat Club | TIMING | WINNER – POINTS |
| A Scull | Ishara Abbey | 4.26 | Kavya James | 4.51 | CRC – 4 |
| A Pairs | Amani Tissera, Sasanda Chandraratna | 4.16 | Dhitka Chowdray, Ranjana K | 4.34 | CRC – 6 |
| A Double Scull | Ishara Abbey, Nihara Waravita | 4.14 | Anushka Dhanda, Sumana Narayan | 4.30 | CRC – 7 |
| A Fours | Senuri de Silva, Ranuli Wickramasekera, Binali De alwis, Maedhini De Alwis, Mayanthi Weerakoon | 4.19 | Dhitka Chowdray, Ranjana K, Kavya James, Sumana Narayan, Anirudh Sanjeev (cox) | 4.29 | CRC – 8 |
| TOTAL | 25 | – |
