Diyawanna Lake which is in the capital of the country and surrounding the Sri Lanka parliament also has the Sri Jayawardenepura Highway running the length of its shore. As the course was laid out almost parallel to the highway bordering the lake, it gave the spectators a clear view of the entire course. The newly paved sidewalk and foot path and the benches with the shady trees made this a mass spectator event.

This regatta is not only the first regatta to be held at the Diyawanna Lake it also broke grounds as the first eight lane regatta to be conducted in Sri Lanka. This regatta also included Sri Lanka’s first ever K1 sprint kayak races.

The regatta commenced at around 8.00 a.m. and went on the whole day having the awards ceremony taking place only at about 7.30 p.m. as the participation was great.

In the Women’s Under 16 category Samaakhya Gajanayake of the Colombo Rowing Club was placed first in the scull event while the double scull event was won by Janethri Marapana and Pahan Vidyalankara of Museus College. However, the overall trophy of the Women’s Under 16 category went to Ladies College with 6 points as they won the second and third places in both the above events.

Ladies College also won the overall trophy in the Women’s Under 19 category by winning all the gold medals, as Ashani Welikala was placed first in the scull event while Haiqa Mohomed and Anoushka Tissera won the double scull event. Ladies College also won the fours in this category and the crew consisted of Ashani Welikala, Dharini Samarasinghe, Isabella Sansoni, Thiranya Fernando and Marihah Indroos.

The women’s open overall trophy was won by the Bolgoda Lake Rowing Club, as Swarnamali Wijesinghe won the scull and Sachithra Jayathilaka and Swarnamali Wijesinghe also won the double scull. However, Shiyanka De Zylva, Amani Tissera, Anisha Gunesekara, Anishka Gomesz and Shiloh Sumanthiran of Ladies College won the fours.

The Women’s open relay which consisted of a scull, double scull and four was won by Ladies College. The winning crew was Sanchia Supramanium in the scull, Haiqa Mohomed and Anoushka Tissera in the double scull and Shiyanka De Zylva, Amani Tissera, Anisha Gunesekara, Anishka Gomesz and Shiloh Sumanthiran in the four.

In the Men’s Under 16 Category Lahiru Herath of Royal College won the scull event while Jason Jonk and Amrith Piers of St. Thomas College won the double scull event. The overall trophy for this category was shared by both Royal College and St. Thomas College with 5 points each.

The Men’s Under 19 scull and double scull events were won by St. Joseph College. Aaron John and Ashain Perera won the double scull and Aaron John also won the scull. The fours were won by Ming-Hue Chang, Sandesh Bartlett, Anuradha Nadaraja, Sajin De Livera and Chanuka De Alwis of St. Thomas College. However, the overall trophy for this category was shared by St. Joseph College and Royal College with 7 points each as Royal College came 2^nd in all the above events and also came 3^rd in the fours and in addition to the two 1^st places mentioned above St. Joseph also came 3^rd in the scull event.

Men’s Open was a clean sweep for the Colombo Rowing Club as they came first in all three events. While Shehan Muthugala came 1^st Sajeev De Silva came 2^nd in the scull event and these two also came first in the double scull event. The crew of the winning four was Pradeep Bandara, Sajeev De Silva, Manilka Gunaratne, Shahan Muthugala, and Peter Christy.

Sri Lanka Navy won the Master’s overall trophy by coming first in all three events. The winning crews were S.B.D.P.S Fonseka in the scull, K.A.K Chandana and S.B.D.P.S Fonseka in the double scull and M.G.R.C. Kumara, A.M.P. Senerath, J.M. Hussain, H.M. Amaradasa and J.C. Nishantha in the four.

Sri Lanka Navy also won the first ever K1 sprint Kayak races which was held in Sri Lanka. M.R.N.I Priyadarshana came first in the 200M race while K.V.S.S. Kumara came first in the 500M race.

However the event which was much looked forward for, the Men’s open relay was cancelled due to bad light.

Sri Lanka Air force commandos also joined this mega event which was mainly targeted to support Sri Lanka tourism. In this video two Sri Lanka air force officers sky dive from a height of 4000 feet in Sigiriya – Dambulla area. Also read our article – Sri Lanka Air Force women officers are sets a record in Nigh Sky Dive in South Asia.

Video Update : Sri Lanka Air Force commandos sky dive during the Hot balloon festival in 2011

In July 2010, Ranasinghe and Hewagama were the first women in South Asia to complete 200 parachute jumps.