By Bruce Maurice for the Daily Mirror
History repeated itself when the Thomians rowed their boats ashore to give Royal College a Blue and Black tint and win the 36th ‘Battle of the Blues’ Regatta by a clear 40 points to 12.
S. Thomas’ got off to a flying start by winning the Junior ‘B’ Sculls and Senior ‘A’ Sculls to pocket eight points. But Royal had the better of their rivals in the next race when their oarsmen rowed ahead to win the Junior ‘B’ Double Sculls and collect four points. The next two races were a one way street for S. Thomas’ when they won the Junior ‘B’ Pairs and Senior ‘A’ Pairs to increase their tally to 28 points to Royals four.
By now Royal knew that their goose was well and truly cooked. Because even if they won the last two races it would have no bearing on the final result, as the last two races carried only 20 points.
Royal took the next race, which was the Junior ‘B’ Fours that carried eight points to bring their tally to 12 which was still adrift of the Thomian tally of 28 points.And then came the Boat Race, the ‘Blue Riband’ of the regatta which carried a solid 12 points. It was a race worthy of a final with neither side giving or asking a quarter. And the Thomians not going to give it away, bent their backs and put every ounce of energy into their pulls and won it by .04 seconds.
Results
Winners
Junior ‘B’ Sculls: STC: Dhanushka Jayanett
Senior ‘A’ Sculls: STC: Sajeev De Silva.
Junior ‘B’ Double Sculls: Royal: Shehan Muthugala (bow) and Pradeep Maddumabandara (stroke)
Senior ‘A’ Double Sculls: STC: Ruven Weerasinghe (bow) and Sajeev De Silva (stroke).
Junior ‘B’ Pairs: STC: Shehan De Livera (bow) and Sajeev De Silva (stroke).
Senior ‘A’ Pairs: Eshan Goonawardena (bow) and Ruwen Weerasinghe (stroke)
Junior ‘B’ Pairs: RC: Sahan Warnasuriya (bow) and Thivanka Jayatilake.
Boat Race: STC: Eshan Goonawardena (bow), Sajeev De Silva (two), Dhanushka Jayanetti (three), Ruven Weersinghe (stroke) and Amrik Varia (cox)
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