"Never Give Up" is the finest lesson that you can learn in your life. The rowers from Ladies’ College, Flower Road, Colombo, have apparently learnt that lesson through rowing.

"This is not just a sport for me. I have learnt a lot from rowing. ‘Never to give up anything,’ ‘facing tuff challenges positively’ and ‘to respect each other’ are some of them," said Varunika Samarasinghe in an interview with ‘Sunday Island - Sportstar’ recently.

Khyati Wickramanayaka, another member of the rowing team of Ladies,’ then added: "Our main challenge will be at the 5th Annual Ladies’ and Musaeus College Regatta which is scheduled to be held on October 11 at the Beira Lake waters by the Colombo Rowing Club. It will be a challenging event for all of us but we’ll be ready for it."

A book on sports once wrote: "A race cannot be won on the day of the race, a race cannot be won on the race itself as a race is only a show of what you have achieved in your practices before that race" and the rowers from the Flower Road school showed what they have achieved during their practices by winning the races of the 24th National Rowing Championships last week.

Who thought it would become a one-sided National Rowing Championship this time when Musaeus College, Colombo, was expected to come as a stiff challenge. But defending champions Ladies’ came up with flying colours to defend the title and to make it their own championship at ‘the National Regatta’ worked off at the Beira Lake waters. Ladies’ College ended up with 11 gold medals and nine silvers in the Championship.

There are two sisters who have been impressive in the Ladies’ College rowing crew guiding their team to this massive victory in the Nationals. They are Amayi Mandawala and Anjeli. The two are also involved in the sport of hockey. They said that rowing is a different sport. "If you need to win at rowing, the entire team must gel together and ‘commitment’ must be another name for a rowing career."

When the ‘Sportstar’ asked what their major challenges were in life after this vital win, they said: "Our studies are always a challenge. So, at the moment, studying is the most challenging thing before us."

"When we lose 16 hours for practices each week, it’s really hard going well in studies but we’re trying hard to strike a balance between rowing and our studies," said the London A/L student Samarasinghe but the other team members had a deferent opinion. "Musaeus rowers (not studies) are our main challenge!"