The Ranfer Sprints, held on Saturday 27th, is a unique annual event in the Rowing calendar.
Teams field a Scull, Pair and Coxed Four which each row two 300 meter sprints to accumulate points out a potential 15. The team with the most collective points wins the event.
In the men’s category, the Colombo Rowing Club had a slim win with 7 points gathered off the two Four races. Sri Lanka Navy (A) won both Scull races to obtain 3 points, and SL Navy (B) won both Pair races for a total of 5 points. This split of points between the two Navy crews was highly disadvantageous. If the winning scull and pair were in the same team, they would have won the event with 8 points.
The women’s category was a clearer fight where Ladies’ College trumped CRC, Musaeus College and SL Navy with a total of 11 points. CRC took the second Four race to get a consolation prize of 4 points.
In a break from tradition, other annual Club events were held concurrently with the Sprints.
The Wardrop Sculls event was bagged by Aaron John of St. Joseph’s College, who has been streaking past all his competitors this year. The HMS Fours was won by a mixed crew.
The Stubbs Quaich Pair event was won by Ishan Perera and Bilal Hassan of Royal College, with a time of 3:45. RC (B) and STC (B) placed 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The Women’s Junior Scull event was a straight final in which Ishara Abbey of Ladies’ College took the win with a timing of 4:33. MC (B) and MC (A) took the next places.
The Women’s Junior Four was also won by the Ladies’ College combination of Chanika Goonetilleke, Ishara Abbey, Anika Ahamed, Nashali Goonetilleke and Ashmitha Gunaratne, with a timing of 4:13. Musaeus (A) was runners up with LC (B) coming from behind to take third place.
