Colombo Rowing Club takes inaugural Karachi-Colombo regatta

Friday, 6 September 2013 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By David Ebert Adding another annual event to the local rowing calendar, Sri Lanka’s premier boat club, the historic Colombo Rowing Club (CRC), hosted the inaugural Karachi-Colombo regatta on Saturday, 31 August, competing against rowers from the prestigious Karachi Boat Club. With 12 races lined up for the day in both the men’s and ladies events, the CRC team coached by former Sri Lankan national rower Dejan De Zoysa, coasted to a comfortable win, taking the flag in ten out of the twelve races to end up with an overall tally of 62 points (ladies 30, men 32) with the Karachi Boat Club team having to be satisfied with 14 points (ladies 8, men 6).

The CRC team got off to a slow start, with Sanchia Supramanium and Aneesha Gunasekara losing the L2- race to KBC’s Manal Kamran and Zahra Currimbhoy while its second loss was by firm favourite Shehan Muthugala, who seemed out of sync in his first MS1x race, losing to Hassan Currimbhoy. Muthugala however overcame his loss and came back in his other events helping his team snatch convincing wins in the MS2X and M4+ races.

The two losses however seemed to spur on the CRC team, who went on to grab victory in all the remaining races that also saw some records tumble in the ladies 4+ and 2x events. Speaking of the event, Colombo Rowing Club President Lushantha de Silva said: “The club has always maintained close ties with other rowing clubs in the region; a tradition which dates back to the 1800s. We are happy to inaugurate this regatta which we hope will be an annual event to foster closer relations with Pakistan.” The Pakistani High Commission’s Deputy Head of Mission Amana Baloach graced the occasion as the chief guest.