Sri Lankan rowers continuing from where they left last year, kicked-off the new year with the Colombo Rowing Club (CRC) emerging champions by winning five golds and a solitary silver at the 78th ARAE-FEARA regatta in Kolkatta, India last week while the men clinched the Hoogley Trophy with a tally of 28 points.
Though the CRC crew consisted of nine athletes (six men and three women) small by club standards, it was the best team that returned to the island with six medals.
The Amateur Rowing Association of the East, is a regatta, founded by a few clubs, the Madras Boat Club, Colombo Rowing Club, Calcutta Rowing Club and Bengal Rowing Club to name a few.
The regatta has had many international rowing clubs taking part over the years across many parts of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.
Full results:
Indoor Rowing Ergometer Championship
Open ARAE Men’s category
Ruven Weerasinghe (3.09.9)- Silver
Women’s category
Open ARAE Women’s Double Scull
Swarnamali Wijesinghe,
Samaakhya Gajanayake- Gold
Open ARAE Women’s Pair
Ishika de Silva, Swarnamali Wijesinghe- Gold
Men’s Category
Open ARAE Men’s Scull
Arjun Wickramanayake- Gold
Open ARAE Men’s Double Scull
Hashen Hettigoda, Arjun Wikramanayake- Gold
Open ARAE Men’s Four (Willingdon trophy)
Ruven Weerasinghe
Shehan Muthugala
Sajin De Livera
Sandesh Bartlett- all Gold
The team was coached by Anuradha Nataraja and Kaveen Rajapakse.