Sri Lanka sails over SAYR to be champs (wins 6 gold, 4 silvers, 2 bronze)

Sri Lanka beat India and Pakistan in the junior events of the RJV INT’L South Asian Yachting Regatta concluded last Sunday, to take two out of the three Gold Medals on offer for the team-racing events.

The regatta was sailed on Bolgoda Lake from Dec. 27-29 with each team sailing six races against the other two teams for the three classes of boats sailed.

These were, Optimist (children under 16, single-handed), Laser 4.7 (youth under 19, single-handed) and Enterprise (open, helm and crew). In the Optimist Class, Sri Lanka fielded two teams, I and II.

The Sri Lanka Optimist II Team, comprising Dimitri Goonewardena, Maleena Awn, Joshua Karpinski and Danielle Svendsen won all six of their races to take the gold. India took the silver, with Pakistan relegated to the bronze medal.

Dimitri Goonewardena convincingly won Gold in the individual series to take the Senior Trophy in that event, too, with 12 year old Aitana Gunaratne winning Gold in the Junior Trophy.

In the Laser 4.7 class, both Sri Lanka teams trumped the South Asian opposition, with Team II winning the gold and Team I taking the silver.

The winning team, comprising Indrajith Abeysena, Akshan Jirasinha, Nadine de Rosayro and Devin Goonewardena, won all four of their races to get an unassailable lead over Sri Lanka Team I, which included Sacha Gunaratne, Ishan Abeysekera, Viren Dias and Radheeka Jirasinha, who went on to win the silver. The individual Laser 4.7 Trophy was won by Nadine de Rosayro (Sri Lanka), with Shazli Tahir (Pakistan) and Devin Goonewardena (Sri Lanka) taking silver and bronze.

In the larger Enterprise-class team racing event, however, Sri Lanka had to be content with Silver. The Pakistanis demonstrated their expertise by winning everyone of the four races they sailed against India and Sri Lanka, to take the Gold.

Silver medallists Sri Lanka included the Navy Sailing Club’s W.P. Janaka, J. Jayasooriya, Marambe, Bandara, Nishantha and U. Bandara. In the individual event, Zahid Rauf (helm) with Rana Waqas (crew) won the gold, with W.P. Janaka (helm) and J. Jayasuriya (crew) taking the silver.

With the South Asian Yachting Regatta itself having been sailed from Dec. 27-29, Sunday saw a massive one fleet race being sailed at Bolgoda, with 56 participants from all the countries sailing a colourful fleet of GP14, Lasers and Enterprises.

With a spectacular 45 boats on the water, Asanka Goonewardena (helm) and D. Newton (crew) won the gold medal, sailing a British-made GP14 dinghy.

The Silver was taken by Mohan Balasuriya crewed for by Gnnawardene, while the bronze went to the young South African sailor Graham Fraser carrying P. Kumara as crew. Chief guest, Chairman of RJV INT’L Ricky Silver Wijesinghe, graced the occasion and gave away the prizes.

(RD)