Thursday in Choju (Poland) the second division of the European Athletics Team Championship ended. Teams from 16 countries competed in it for three consecutive days, and in the general standings, the Lithuanians, who rose every day, surpassed the Slovenian team by just half a point and reached the third place.
The Lithuanians finished the first day of the championship in eighth place, after the second they jumped to even fourth position (at that time, 35.5 points were missing from the Slovenians, who were in third place - aut. past), and on the final day of the competition, only in the last matches did they climb to the coveted third place, which means entry into the elite - the highest division of the European Team Championship.
On the third day of the championship, the country's athletes pleased with their individual achievements and the places they took - Edis Matusevičius scored the team's only victory, Greta Karinauskaitė ir Gediminas Truskauskas took the second places, and was happy with the third places Jogailė Petrokaitė ir Gabija Galvydytė. In addition, the athletes recorded even five best results of the season in Lithuania.
After the triumph of the Lithuanian representatives, the general secretary of the Lithuanian Athletics Federation and the team leader Nijole Medvedeva did not hide his joy: "Unbelievable, we will be in the highest division of Europe!" Fantastic, our team is super. Everyone gave it their all and performed brilliantly."
"As I mentioned at the beginning of the championship, every point or half is very important. Our athletes tried hard, so we are very happy," N. Medvedeva shared her emotions.
"The president of the federation motivated us the most Eimantas Skrabulis, which urged faith and hope. We honestly thought that the fourth place would be super, but we exceeded our expectations, so we are very happy," said the team leader.
Nijolė did not want to single out the blacksmiths of success: "I really won't single out anyone, because a team is a team. Everyone contributed as much as they could. Thanks to all!"
Even in three events (400 m, 4×100 m and 4×400 m relays), she brought points to the team Modesta Justė Morauskaitė felt tired after the competition: "I am very tired both physically and emotionally. I came back after an injury and immediately to such a big event, where the pressure is really high."
"Yesterday we didn't believe we could, and today we did it. Emotions are running through all ends. It's very, very fun," the team was proud of Modesta.
The sprinter ran last in the last event (4×400 m mixed relay) and saw her main competitors in front of her eyes: "I knew that our goal was to overtake the Slovenians. My personal goal was to stay close to Slovenian. I know her very well because we have been competing together for many years and she is an incredibly capable athlete."
"I really wanted to overtake her, but today I'm too weak for that, but I gave it my all." When we finished, I didn't know where we were, but the team was very happy and from that I understood that we got into the first division", said M. Morauskaitė after the finish.
The athlete is looking forward to trying her strength in the strongest division as well: "Our Lithuanian team is extremely capable, we have many strong athletes at the international level. We will be there and perform very well."
In the mixed relay, the Lithuanians (Lukas Sutkus, Ema Sarafinaite, Tomas Keršulis, Modesta Justė Morauskaitė) took the fourth place (3 min. 15,95 sec.), and the Slovenians came first (3 min. 14,72 sec.) and melted the difference of 3.5 points to 0.5.
E. Matusevičius, who returned to international competitions after a break of more than 22 months, threw the javelin 84.22 m. "I really did not expect such a result. Everything was arranged in such a way that it seems that the spear will not fly.
According to Eddie, both the support and the stadium contributed to such a performance: "The surface is very good. In general, I miss such big stadiums and competitions. I think the atmosphere helped me."
The javelin thrower, fighting for the World Championship in Hungary (August 19-27), was only 0.98 years short of the norm. "This result gives me motivation, I felt better myself. After the first start at the beginning of June in the LLAF Cup (71.42 m), I was disappointed", said the athlete.
"I believe that I can do better and I could even do better, but I have problems with my side, so the priority now is to cure it," said E. Matusevičius about his future plans.
G. Karinauskaitė took the second place in the 3000 m steeplechase and covered the distance in 9 minutes. 28,48 sec. and recorded the second best result of his career. "I would rate the performance not bad, the feeling was quite good. It wasn't very difficult, of course, it's not easy at the end of the distance whether you like it or not, but with such weather conditions, the result is good", said Greta after the match.
The former light athlete, who was first in most of the distance, said that this is a tactical aspect: "Now I have led all the last starts and I realized that this is the best way for me. In this case, I can clearly see the obstacle, which is an advantage. There was a start when I ran in a group, which was much more difficult than running alone."
Only the Slovenian beat Greta in the match Maruša Mišmaš Zrimšek, who covered 3000 m kl/b in 9 min. 23,41 sec.
G. Truskauskas won the second place and brought 15 points to Lithuania, who won the 200 m event in 20,60 seconds. "The expectations of this start have been fully fulfilled. The goal was to improve the best result of the season, and today everything went well, the competition and the weather conditions were perfect", commented the sprinter on the performance.
"I started more than a week ago and it was more difficult, the form at the beginning of the season is not yet optimal. The goal is to reach the highest form at the end of August, for the world championship, and from the middle of July, we would like stability of results", said Gediminas about the next starts. In the distance of 200 m, the athlete was overtaken only by a Slovak Jan Volko (20,53 sec.).
Long jumper J. Petrokaitė, who recorded the second best result in her career (6.60 m), won third place on Thursday, and the winner was a Serbian Milica Gardašević jumped 6.82 m. "The start was difficult because even though I knew I was feeling good, it took me a while to find my rhythm. All competitions went well, because I got all six jumps, so I'm happy", Jogailė shared her experience after the competition.
The athlete did not hide that she was also motivated by the amazing jumper Marius Vadeikis performance on Wednesday (7.80 m and after 12 years the personal record was repeated): "Mariukas was very motivating. He said before the game that I would love the track because it is very good. Marius was truly an inspiration."
Having improved another personal record, G. Galvydytė covered the distance of 1500 m in 4 minutes. 09,48 sec. This is the sixth result in the history of Lithuania, which brought Gabija third place in the team championship. "I consider the performance good, I knew that I would improve my personal record. I had to run this event only once in the season, so I knew that I am in better shape now", G. Galvydytė assured.
However, the latter did not hide that she hoped to perform even better: "I wanted to run faster, but it was necessary to give a lot of strength and press the rivals in the last lap to raise the pace."
"I'm happy because even though I was overtaken, the time wouldn't have been the same if I hadn't pushed. For the sake of the team, I pushed as hard as I could and tried to overtake the Slovenian and collect as many points as possible", commented the athlete, who won 14 points, and since the Romanian who finished in first place Claudios Mihaelas Boboceaos just 0,80 seconds behind.
The fourth-place high jumper on the final day of the second division Irish Maid (1.91 m) said that everything is going according to plan: "At the beginning of the season, I said that the best form is planned for the months of July and August. Selection for the 2024 Paris Olympics doesn't open until July 1, so everything that happens until then is practically unimportant."
"Representing Lithuania in team and other championships is always very important. I don't remember when I danced less than 1.90m while representing the country in a competition of this rank. I tried to concentrate and focus all my attention on the result today," said Airinė.
The high jumper added that she was only one jump away from third place: "It's a bit of a shame, because with the same result I could have finished third, it would have brought the team even more points." On the other hand, to fight with a Ukrainian woman Yaroslava Mahuchikh (first place - 1.97 m) there are really no chances for today, she is from another area of space. Overall, this event is very strong now and I think the A girls in this division are the strongest jumpers."
A. Palšytė was also happy with the improving form and growing results, but emphasized the lack of spectators in the stadium: "The best result of the season has been improved by 5 cm, so I am really satisfied. The stadium is amazing, the highest-level Diamond League competitions are held here, but the audience is really lacking. I hope more will gather for the first division competition."
5-6 places were shared in the men's high jump sector Juozas Baikštys, who overcame 2.15 m. "The whole of June is difficult, because technically it is not possible to implement everything. I don't dance for the whole of June, and 2.15 m is definitely not the result I'm training for," said J. Baikštys.
"Now there is a three-week break. I think that for the months of July and August my form will improve, we will improve my technique and I will be stronger", - the light athlete did not lose his optimism. The Bulgarian won his match Tihomir Ivanov (2.24 m).
The javelin thrower remained in sixth place this time Liveta Jasiūnaitė, who threw the tool in 57.46 m. "At the moment it's hard to say what happened. In the warm-up, everything was fine, but in the pot, maybe I tensed up and didn't manage to put the accents where they needed to be. The stadium and the weather conditions were really great, but the support was a little lacking," commented Liveta after the match. The Latvian threw the spear the furthest Lina Mūze (62.38 m).
5000 m distance Giedrius Valinčius finished tenth (14 min. 13,93 sec.) and from the winner Serb Elzan Bibičius was behind by 19,98 seconds. Won the eleventh place and earned six points for the team Lucretija Sabaitytė (200 m - 23,71 sec.) and Šarūnas Banevičius (shot put - 16.93 m). In their matches, the representative from Cyprus won, respectively Olivia Fotopoulou (22,71 sec.) and Croatian Filip Mihaljevičius (21.33 m).
In addition to Lithuania, the remaining Hungarians (456.5 points) and Ukrainians (435.5) also entered the strongest division. Lithuania scored 372.5 points, while the fourth-placed Slovenia scored 372. From Friday to Sunday, the first division competition will be held at the same stadium, where 16 more teams will compete. The last three will be relegated to the second division.
After the results of the first division, the prize-winners of the individual events who will win the medals of the European Games will be determined. The next European Athletics Team Championship will be held in 2025.
