Royal retain Noel Fernando Trophy with huge win
By Naushad Amit
Royal College made a thorough clean-out to outsmart traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College by 50-2 and retain the T. Noel Fernando Memorial Trophy in the 43rd Royal-Thomian Regatta and 47th Boat Race on the waters of Beira Lake at the Colombo Rowing Club yesterday.
Coming off with a decent record this season, the Royal rowing crew took the coveted plum for the 21st occasion after ending the Thomain dominance of five years last year.
Last year Royal regained the title by comprehensively beating S. Thomas’ 48-4 and this year was even better. The eventual winners only conceded two points and two races in the event which included 11 races in total. They lost the two points to S. Thomas’ in the Junior Scull after Arjun Wickramanayake finished at 3 minutes and 28 seconds, well ahead of Royal’s Pasindu Peiris, who clocked 3 minutes and 32 seconds. In addition the Thomians had the solace of winning the Old Boy’s Four, which had no points on offer.
The rest of the day was totally owned by Royalists, led by Kaveen Rajapakse, who steered his side to a smashing win as similar to what the Reid Avenue school achieved few weeks ago by a similar scoreline and margin.
Out of the nine wins Royal had three outstanding ones — the Boat Race, the main event of the day for 12 points, the Senior Scull for 8 points and the Under-16 Four, which had no points. The Boat Race, or the Senior Four, had a tight start up to 300 metres with both crews tangling to sneak out the other but the game changed when the race reached the 700-metre mark.
Royal took the lead by a whisker and expanded gradually as they reached the latter stretch of the race to win by a healthy margin of 0.05 seconds. The Royal crew of skipper Rajapakse, Praveen Hapugalla, Heshan Hettigoda, Prathap Perera and Avishka Jayaweera on Cox recorded 3 minutes and 08 seconds as the entire crew members leaped in joy into the Beira Lake for winning the Boat Race Trophy.
The Thomian crew which had Saliya Gunasekara, Suramba Serasinghe, Deshitha Hannayake, Shalinda Jayasekara and Meshach Peiris on Cox timed 3 minutes and 13 seconds.
Just before the main race Royal had the grit to pip out S. Thomas’ by 0.02 seconds to win the Junior Four which offered eight points and the Eraj Wijesinghe Trophy. The winning crew of Lasaru Kudaligama, Charin Wijethileke, Praveen Weerakkody, Thimesh Amarasena and Revata Karunasundara on Cox timed 3 minutes and 15 seconds while the Thomians clocked 3 minutes and 17 seconds making the efforts of skipper Kemil Peter, Pranishka Dias, Lakshan Sri Pragash, Dharaka Peiris and Wishmitha Peiris on Cox futile.
The most overwhelming win of the day came in the Senior Double Scull for Royal, who had Heshan Hettigoda and Lasaru Kudaligama and clocked 3 minutes and 15 seconds to win the Sirisena-Sirimanne Trophy and earn 8 points. The Thomians pair of Arjun Wickramanayake and Pranishka Dias finished way behind clocking 3 minutes and 45 seconds.
The Junior B Four, which had no points, was won by similar fashion by the Royalists, who clocked 3 minutes and 16 seconds but the Thomians gave a great fight to finish 0.01 second behind. The winning crew for Royal had Sajaad Ajmal, Pasindu Alwis, Lasindu Gamage, Ishira Rambukwella and Revata Karunasundara on Cox while S. Thomas’ had Meshach Peiris, Joel Rajendran, Uvindu Premaratne, Dhaharath Senanayake and Ashan Walpola on Cox. The winners claimed the Col. Percy Fernando Trophy.
The second most outstanding win of the day was recorded by Royal in the Under-16 Four which had Jehan Hapugalle, Mayukha Gamage, Thejiya Wegodapola, Deelaka Mahale and Dinal Aluthgama on Cox. Though the race offered no points, the winners clocked 3 minutes and 32 seconds to win the race while beating the Thomian crew of Avinash Rajaguru, Shanara Senaratne, Niran Warawita, Yehan Abeysinghe and Kiren Ranathunga on Cox. The Thomians clocked 3 minutes and 45 seconds.
The day set off with a win for Royal in the Senior Scull when Heshan Hettigoda clocked 3 minutes and 32 seconds to give his team an early lead of 6-0. He won the Senior Scull Trophy beating Dhaharath Senanayake, who clocked 3 minutes and 41 seconds. The deficit was cut down by 2-6 after the Thomians claimed the Ajith Goonawardena Trophy in the Junior Scull but there was no stopping of the Royalists from then onwards. They went on to win the Senior Pair for 8 points, Junior Pair for 4 points, Junior Double Scull for 4 points and Senior Double Scull for 8 points to expand the lead by 30-2 before going on to seal the two vital races at the end.
