Royal College sailors sailed their way to a sweeping victory to win the Ranil Dias Memorial Trophy at the Royal-Thomian Sailing Regatta during the past weekend. The event was held at Ceylon Motor Yacht Club, Bolgoda for the fifth year and for four consecutive years Thomians managed to defend shield.
This has been a maiden victory ever for Royal College Sailing since regatta was inaugurated.
Individual Optimist and Laser class races were held on the first day of the regatta and both schools managed to score two points each at the end of the day. Dhanika Nanayakkara, the eldest of the four Nanayakkara brothers managed to win the Optimist Class (Under 15) event for St Thomas’ College while Vice Captain Nisal Walpola recorded a comfortable victory for Royal College with 3 first places out of 5 races to defend the North Sails Challenge Trophy in the Laser Class.
The second day turned to be a thrilling encounter with four races, with A and B team races of both Optimist and Laser Classes. It was an entertaining moment for the spectators to watch the gritty battle on the water which decided the overall champions. At the end of the third event, Royal College having won the Optimist ‘A’ team race and St Thomas having won the both Optimist and Laser ‘B’ team races, both schools were on a tie with four points each. In the final event experienced national sailor Walpola displayed his skills throughout the race distracting his opponents to gain advantages for his teammates and guided the Royal College to a 6-4 victory. Royal College grabbed the Ranil Dias Memorial trophy presented to the overall winners, Ray Wijewardana Memorial trophy presented to Laser class winners and the North Sails Challenge Trophy for the best Laser Sailor. St Thomas’ won the Southern Spar Challenge Trophy awarded for the best Optimist sailor of the regatta.
The Victorious Royal team was coached by Devin Gunawardana and Krishan Janaka and the Thomian team was coached by Nadine De Rosiro. Asian Games Silver Medalist Ekandra Edirisinghe was the chief guest on the occasion. The event was jointly organized by the two schools and was sponsored by Browns Group.
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