Forces’ rowers carry Sri Lanka’s medal hopes | Sunday Observer

Forces’ rowers carry Sri Lanka’s medal hopes

22 July, 2018
The four rowers Budhika Chaturanga, Tharanga Rupasinghe, Sugath Senarathne and Udara Udawaththa  earmarked for an Asian medal
The four rowers Budhika Chaturanga, Tharanga Rupasinghe, Sugath Senarathne and Udara Udawaththa earmarked for an Asian medal

Sri Lanka will pin its medal hopes in rowing at the Asian Games on a potent blend of Armed Forces magic with two aircraftmen and two soldiers being picked for the grueling 2000 metres quadruple sculls event at the August 18 to September 2 showpiece in Jakarta and Palembang.

Air Force’s leading aircraftmen Budhika Chaturanga and Tharanga Rupasinghe and Army lance corporals Sugath Senarathne and Udara Udawaththa were selected on recent performances as well as after a lengthy selection process.

It will be the first time in 12 years that Sri Lanka will send a quadruple sculls team to the Asian Games. On the last occasion that Sri Lanka was represented in rowing at this multi-sport extravaganza was at the 2010 Guangzhou Games in the single sculls. Hopes are high of a medal this time around, based on last September’s Asian Championships in Pattaya, Thailand.

“We set up a national pool of 40 athletes early last year and sent our best 12 to the Asian Championships in Pattaya where we performed very well with three boats reaching the A-finals and two boats in the B-finals.

“Following this event, we held our own National Championships in April this year (brought forward from September due to the Asian Games) and then worked on combinations from the 18 gold medalists. These four are our best combination and are a fairly good chance fora medal,” Dimuth Gunawardena, Secretary of the Amateur Rowing Association of Sri Lanka revealed.

The training lasted two months followed by two weeks of trials. At one trial, the quadruple scull of Chaturanga, Rupasinghe, Senerathne and Udwaththa had recorded a best time which was one second outside the gold medal time at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games raising hopes within local circles of a medal at the Jakabaring Sport City Lake in Palembang.

“If we were to compare the times at the 2014 Asian Games, the gold medal winning effort was six minutes and 11 seconds, the silver was 6.18 and bronze 6.19. Our crew touched 6.12 in training which is quite promising. But we can’t get too carried away and will have to strive to improve on these timings,” Gunawardena stressed.

Gunawardena is cautious as he is fully aware that standards have improved across Asia since the last Asian Games. To get a more accurate picture, local rowing officials looked at the average timings at the last two Asian Rowing Championships and found out that the bronze medal timing had been lowered to 6.08, four seconds better than the effort by the Forces crew recently.

“But we are confident that our crew can also improve on their timing on 6.12. We are within touching distance of a bronze medal going on the timings at the last Asian Championships and we are cautiously optimistic of being in the fray,” Gunawardena said.

The sport has been boosted with the commissioning of the Diyawanna Rowing Centre with the rowing canal at Waters Edge being expanded six years ago to international specifications. In the past rowers had to use the Beira Lake facilities which was well short of international standards – around 1.6 kilometres instead of 2000 metres.

In 2014, the government had allocated funds from its sports development budget to construct boatyards, a headquarters for the Association and other facilities. This had also been augmented by funds from the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity programme and facilitated by the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka. The next stage of development a viewing gallery, restaurant and gymnasium are being planned for.

“Once fully developed, we can host international regattas as proposed by the world rowing body FISA as well as the Asian Rowing Federation,” Gunawardena said.

 

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