Sport Rowing | Timeline 1966 – present | |
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Tournament format Annual Rowing regattaSide by Side races Participants Royal College S. Thomas' College Current champion Royal College (50-02) in 2016 Most successful S. Thomas' 23Royal 19Tie 5 | ||
The event generally known as Royal Thomian Regatta or The Regatta is the annual rowing race between Royal College, Colombo and S. Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia having begun in 1962 as the Royal Thomian Boat Race that evolved into a regatta in 1966 and now is made up of 8 events.
Contents
The races are rowed over a distance of 1000 yards and take place on the Beira Lake in Colombo. The regatta takes place in the month of October and is usually held on the last Saturday of the month at the Colombo Rowing Club. The Royal Thomian Regatta is the oldest inter-school rowing regatta in Sri Lanka, with Royal the first school to take up school rowing in the country.
The Boat Race is still regarded as the most prestigious race. The Boat Race is rowed for the Royal Thomian Boat Race Trophy (Also known in the rowing fraternity as the 'Crossed Oars'). The overall winner of the Regatta is awarded the T. Noel Fernando Memorial Trophy.
Having begun in 1962 'The Regatta' is the 3rd oldest sporting encounter between Royal College and S. Thomas' College, after the Battle of the Blues Cricket Encounter and Rugby Encounter.
History
Royal College first began rowing in 1953 as the first school in Ceylon to do so, the first Captain was Alavi Mohomed. S. Thomas' College began rowing a few years later.
In the years to follow the idea of a race between the two schools was agreed upon and in 1962 the 1st Boat Race was held on the Beira Lake and the Royalist's led by L.A.W. Sirisena beat the Thomians led by C.N. Sirimanne by 1 boat length and were the first holders of the Boat Race Trophy. S. Thomas won their first Boat Race in 1964 beating Royal by 3 lengths.
In 1966, the 1st Royal Thomian Regatta was held with a line-up of 6 events. Coxed Fours, Coxed Pairs, Single Sculls in two categories Senior and Junior.
Between 1973 and 1979 the regatta was not held due to a dispute between the two schools. The series was revived in 1980 and continues to the present except in 2006 when the regatta was not held.
In 2007 the Royal College led by Maalik Aziz created history by winning all races and winning the Overall Trophy with a margin of 40 points to nil. Royal College created new record timings for most events including lowering the Boat Race Trophy record by 8 secs to 3 mins 11 secs.
In 2008, history was written yet again although in a different manner with every record being broken as a result of tough competition on either side. Though S'Thomas College led by Manil Salgadoe and Devaan Hallock made most of the records including the Boat race(3.06), Royal college too managed to scrape in two records to stay in the count(Junior coxed Fours, Junior 'B' Coxed Fours).
In 2011, the Royal College Rowing Team led by skipper Chirath Karunanayake added a few more records into the books. Among the records set were; a) The biggest winning margin Royal 48-04 (2011) and subsequently broken in 2016 by Royal College winning 50-02) A new overall course record AND the first ever sub-three minute race, for the Senior Four - 2:55 (Crew consisting of Chirath Karunanayake (B), Ajmal Sideek (2), Jehan Smarasekera (3), Sanjiva Jayasuriya (S) and Coxed by Pasan Ranaweera) c) Junior Four - 3:03 d) Senior Pair - 3:12 e) Senior Sculls - 3:28 f) Junior Sculls - 3:29. S.Thomas' only managed to win the B double and the Junior B four which was not raced for points.
The highest amount of trophies were won in 2016 by Royal College under the captaincy of Kaveen Rajapakse,The previous was in 2015 since the score was 48-04,but in 2016 Royal managed to get a record breaking score of 50-02 plus in 2015 U16 four event for Janaka Dezoysa trophy was not held in 2015 but in 2016 the event was held and Royal bagged that victory to break the early year record.
In 2015, for the first time in the Royal Thomian history, both crews managed to clock below 3 minutes at the boat race. Royal College 2:56 (Praveen Hapugalle,Prathap Perera,Amrith Fernando,Sajid Ajmal,Kaveen Rajapakse) and S.Thomas' 2:57 (Senal Senevirathne,Suramba Serasinghe,Ramith Nanayakkara,Saliya Gunasekera,Wishmitha Peiris).
In 2016,the highest win margin was recorded in books as Royal College won the regatta with a score of 50-02,S.Thomas' only winning the 'B scull'.
Race Format
All Races are rowed over the distance of 1000 yards.
Each event has specific number of points allotted towards it the aggregate points is equal 40 points (up to 2008), the winner of the each event/race receives these points and at the end of the regatta the school with the highest aggregate of points will be declared the Overall Winner and be the holders of the T. Noel Fernando Trophy.
In 1999, The Junior 'B' Coxed Fours was introduced but the event carries no points.
In 2008, Senior and Junior Double Sculls will be introduced as exhibition events. In 2009 Senior and Junior Double Sculls were awarded 8 and 4 points respectively, with inclusion of the two doubles sculls the overall regatta will be worth 52 points.
Most Outstanding Oarsman of the Regatta
The Oarsman with highest individual aggregate of points at the end of the regatta is awarded the Most Outstanding Oarsman of the Regatta Trophy.
Previous Winners
Statistics
Record Times* denotes series record
Won 3 or more Boat RacesS. Thomas'
Royal