Inter University Regatta

The Rowing event of the Sri Lanka Inter University Games will be kicked off on 25th of June 2011. The arch rivals, University of Moratuwa and University of Colombo, will row their hearts out to win the prestigious Prof. Stanley Wijesundera trophy.

This will be the 28th time, that both universities going to show "what they are made of" on the waters of Beira Lake on a 1000m course. Winning the past 3 regattas consecutively, moratuwa rowing team has the physiological advantage over colombo, but having experienced oarsmen who have been rowing for past three years, Colombo rowing team is also in a good position.

Past 3 regattas were "going down to the wire", and this time probably it wont change. To witness the undergraduates towing, be at the Colombo Rowing Club premises on 25th Saturday of June 2.00 pm onwards.

Upcoming Events in the rowing calender

Nuwar-Eliya regatta

This is the first ever, recorded, regatta that is going to be held on the waters of the gregory lake in Nuwara-Eliya. It will be conducted as a 600m sprints, which will be done in the same style as the carlton regatta.

Single sculls(1x), double sculls(2x) and coxed fours(4+) will be raced and the event will be held on 20th of April, 2011

regatta will be funded by the "tharunyata hetak" and many of the rowing teams in Sri Lanka will row at the venue.

RCYC

One of the most prestigious intermediate-level regatta organized by the Colombo Rowing Club, which will be kicked off in April. The exact date is yet to be decided.

This time, it will have some extra events, as the main event in the regatta is the RCYC pairs.

Inter Monsoon Regatta

Inter monsoon regatta which is an annual event of the regatta calender of Colombo Rowing Club, was held on 3rd, 4th and 5th of June at CRC premises. The regatta is considered as one of the most prestige regattas amongst the rowing community.

This regatta consists of two major events followed by some other events. HMS 4s and RCYC pairs are the most significant.

Indoor Rowing

For the first time in the history of rowing in Sri Lanka, an Indoor Rowing Competition was held last week, 1st (Saturday) and 2nd (Sunday) of May 2010 at Ranmal Holiday Resort, Panadura.

In European countries, during the off season (usually in the winter), as they can't do boat training in the outdoors, they have invented a machine called Ergo Meter. It is actually a simulator and simulates the rowing activity(complete rowing cycle).

To preserve the competitiveness of athletes, they organize "Indoor Rowing championships" in every year in which athletes have to row in the ergometers.

Nowadays ergometer is considered as a very important device for rowing, In Sri Lanka there are some institution who has these devices. So the Kothelawala Deffence University and the Bolgoda Lake Rowing Club took the initiative in conducting such an Indoor Rowing Championship in Sri Lanka.

As this is a very much new experience to the Rowing community, almost every institutions involved in rowing took part in this inaugural event. The rowing team of Sri Lanka army exposed them selves after a long time in this competition.

The whole competition was conducted based on age categories:

• 13 years and below
• 14 – 16 years
• 17 – 20 years
• 21 – 25 years
• 26 – 31 years
• 32 – 38 years
• Over 39 years (Masters)
• Elite Category.

And there was a special event called Bolgoda Endurance Challenge event which was an open.

All these categories pertained for both men and women. Only the under 13 event was rowed for 1000m. all others were 2000m. And for each category there were individual events (each athlete has to row 2000m) and team events (where each team consists of 4 members and each one has to row 500m x 4).

At the end of the day kothelawala diffence university bagged most of the trophies in the age categories over 20 and they were even threatening Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force. Royal College and St. Thomas College were doing well in school categories while prince of wales college, Moratuwa also got some medals.

In women's categories It was again Kotelawala deffence university got many of the trophies in age categories over 20. Meauseus College, St. Bishop's College and Ladies College were among the winners of the school category events.

As this competition is to be organized annually, we can expect more and more competition in the upcoming years, and also because of the rapid growth of the sport in the country, we can expect more and more institutions will become aware of the sport and will coming in to play in upcoming regattas.