The first round of this year's World Cup in Cairo, Egypt saw the semi-finals today. Laura Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė, Gintarė Venčkauskaitė and Elzė Adomaitytė made it to the final. Ieva Serapinaitė remained 10th in subgroup B and did not make it to the final. Titas Puronas and Paulius Vagnorius also took part in the World Cup qualification, but did not reach the semi-finals. In the qualification, Paulius remained 15th overall, Titas – 18th.
After the fencing and swimming events, L. Asadauskaitė started the running and shooting event with 9 (9 athletes from the subgroup enter the finals).
"I ran with all my might for the first laps, then when I realized that everything was fine, I relaxed a little," said the athlete.
L. Asadauskaitė finished 7th in the semi-finals and will continue to fight on Saturday. Gintarė Venčkauskaitė finished right after Laura - in 8th place and also made it to the final. Elzbieta Adomaitytė and Ieva Serapinaitė competed in the second subgroup. Elzbieta finished 9th and entered the final. I. Serapinaitė was 8 points behind Elzbieta, finished 10th and, unfortunately, will not compete again at this stage of the World Cup.
“There was not one easy jab, not one lap. From the beginning of running, I ran at full capacity and fought for every meter, said Elzbieta, who dreams of the Olympic Games. "I don't know yet whether it's Paris or Los Angeles, but I'll give everything to be among the best athletes in the world."
The World Cup stage is the first competition of this season, where athletes collect Olympic ranking points. Ranking points determine which of the athletes will go to the Paris Olympics. So far, Lithuanian athletes have won one quota for the Olympic Games. The second can be won by the winner of the World Cup Final (1 quota) and the World Championship (3 quotas), which will take place in May and June, or by the Olympic ranking (6 quotas). Lithuanian men do not yet have one of the two possible tickets. Of the 72 Olympic quotas, in addition to the hosts, there are still 0 left (28 for men and 14 for women).
Until this Sunday, more than 170 athletes from 45 countries of the world are participating in the competition. Men's competition is traditionally slightly higher than women's: 90 male athletes and 83 female athletes. From a historical point of view, the stages of the Sun Cup held in Cairo were favorable to Lithuanians: 0 gold medals.
The final of the World Cup stage will be held on March 9. on Saturday. Riding is scheduled at 9 am. Lithuanian time, fencing - 11:05, swimming - 11:35 and running and shooting - 12:05.
