The 13th Ladies-Musaeus regatta, or more commonly known as the LC-MC regatta is due to get underway on 1st October 2016, at the Colombo Rowing Club.
Ladies’ College and Musaeus College have both oriented themselves towards 1000 meter races, days after the 31st National Rowing Championships which concluded at the Diyawanna Rowing Centre.
Ladies College have had victory under sleeves for five consecutive years since 2011. They won comprehensively 52-00 in 2013 and 48-04 in 2014, but faced a tough Musaeus challenge in 2015 where the regatta went down to the ‘A’ four race in which Ladies College showed their superiority, yet again winning a close race and the regatta by 2 points. This year, the team led by Chanika Gunathileka will aim to maintain their winning streak with their 6th consecutive regatta win.
This year’s Ladies College crew has the edge in terms of experience with a total of 8 colourswomen. The most senior campaigners have no less than 5 years in the rowing arena.
Second in command to skipper Chanika, senior cox Ashmitha Guneratne and the maestro sculler Ishara Abbey will be the vice-captain of the Ladies College crew. Davina Koch, Nihara Warawita, Shannon Perera and Ashvini Subasinghe will strengthen the backbone of the crew as the seniors of the team. The upcoming juniors, Anelka Karunaratne, Kavisha Dassanayake, Jeshani Sri-Kumar and Thiranya Abeyeratne have performed and will be expected to perform at this year’s regatta as well.
The man behind the scenes, Head Coach Sharen Kannangara and has played a vital role for the crew’s success. Speaking to ThePapare.com, the office bearers of the crew mentioned that Mr. Kannangara has kept the crew together and has been their mentor on and off the waters.
2016 has been a great year for the Ladies College crew in terms of rowing. The crew participated and won at the Asian School’s regatta in Singapore, won 8 medals at the 31st National Rowing Championships, won the women’s category at the Ranfer Sprints and the Opening Regatta. The season’s results have proved that Ladies College have had a successful year leading up to the LC-MC and the crew will be expecting to maintain their winning streak over the big regatta as well.
The 13th regatta will be the ultimate battle for both crews and they will be aiming for the coveted ‘Marie Musaeus Higgins Trophy’ with Ladies’ College will be looking forward to retaining the trophy for the 6th consecutive year.
