Sajeev de Silva of S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia, set Bolgoda Lake on fire by rowing through to seven title wins —out of seven events— in the 25th National Rowing C’ships held at Moratuwa yesterday.

This year’s Nationals belongs to the young Thomian, undoubtedly, who rowed seven events and won all those and, according to Rohan Fernando, President, the Amateur Rowing Association, it was a new record in the Sri Lankan rowing history and it would take long years to record again that kind of a remarkable performance.

The young oarsmen won the open sculls, open fours, open double sculls, Under-19 sculls, Under-19 fours, Under-19 double sculls and schoolboy sculls events.

Meanwhile in the women’s category, oarswomen’s from Ladies’ College, Colombo, showed great power and courage to impress with Musaeus College, Colombo, giving them a good fight.

The Men’s U-19 category was won by Royal College while both the open category and the U-19 category was won by S. Thomas.’ The Over-19 title went to the University of Moratuwa.

Meanwhile the open women’s and U-19 categories were won by Ladies’ College while Ladies’ and Bishop’s Colleges shared the U-16 age group title due an equal points tally. University of Colombo won the Over-19 category.

The major difference in this year’s Nationals was the distance of the races which changed from 1,000m to 2,000m in accordance with international standards.

The teams which took part in the c’ships this year:

Ananda College, Asian Int’l School, Bishop’s College, SL Air Force, SL Army, Prince of Wales College, Ladies’ College, Musaeus College, S. Thomas’ College, University of Colombo, University of Moratuwa, Colombo Rowing Club, Kantale Defence University Rowing Club and Bolgoda Rowing Club.