The Asian Schools Rowing Association (ASRA) regatta will be hosted by Dubai this year on the 7th and 8th of February.
Sri Lanka will be well represented by Bishop’s College, Ladies’ College, Measeus College, Visakha Vidyalaya, Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya, Asian International School, St. Joseph’s College, Nalanda College, D. S. Senanayake College, Prince of Wales College, and one boy from Gateway College. This year the competition will be fierce as many schools from Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka race down the Dubai Creek. There will be two main age categories, under 16 and 16-20. Unlike most local regattas ASRA will only have sculling events: the single scull, double sculls and quads.
Rowing is not a widespread sport in Sri Lanka and so the competition is very limited. Regattas like ASRA give school going oarsmen and oarswomen the opportunity to pit themselves against their own age groups from a different countries and see where they stand. Although each of them will row primarily to win trophies for their own respective schools, they will also be representatives of our country. Therefore we wish all the young oarsmen and oarswomen the best of luck at this competition and hope that they will bring the all medals and glory back home.
