On Sunday, the four-day European Junior (U20) Athletics Championships in Tampere (Finland) came to an end. On the last day of the competition, Joana Feodorovaitė started in the long jump final, taking 11th place in the championship. In the best attempt, the Lithuanian managed to jump 5.97 m, while the other jumps were not counted (x-x-5.97).

The final of the girls’ long jump was intriguing, as the athletes who fought for the highest positions were separated by only a few centimeters. The gold medal was won by Bori Rozsahegyi of Hungary (6.46 m), the silver medal was won by the British Thea Brown (6.44 m), and the bronze medal was won by the Ukrainian Diana Myroshnichenko (6.37 m).

“11th place in the European Championship is a good achievement and an invaluable experience for the future. I am satisfied with the result. Of course, I felt very good, so I was hoping for a better result, but for today I did my best. I climbed the second jump by only a few millimeters, and last year I also had two uncredited jumps in Banska Bistrica. I was already experienced and made proper corrections in acceleration before the third attempt. However, unfortunately, we did not succeed in making it to the top eight,” said 17-year-old J. Feodorovaitė.

Last year, track and field athlete Banska became the vice-champion of the European Junior (U18) in Bistrica (Slovakia) when she significantly improved her personal record (6.23 m). In this final, the athlete was the second youngest participant, and of all the Lithuanian representatives who had ten in the championship, J. Feodorovaitė started last: “Today there was a lack of support from Lithuanians, team members, because they have already left for Lithuania. I also missed another attempt (smiles). During this championship, I remained calm and concentrated, because the competition was in the last days. I felt a lot of tension and fatigue because waiting is tiring.”

At the European Junior Championships, the bronze medal was won by javelin thrower Orinta Navikaitė, the fourth place was taken by triple jumper Aurėja Beniušytė, and J. Feodorovaitė, coached by Gražina Šerėnienė , took the third highest position among Lithuanians.

“This season has been difficult. In the beginning, I had a hard time, I made a lot of mistakes, and the exams at school went off track. Now I wasn’t in my best shape because I couldn’t get better results. There were good jumps, but they are not counted,” said the long jumper.

This year, J. Feodorovaitė jumped the furthest in the Baltic Youth Championships, which took place almost three weeks ago (6.08 m). In this competition, the athlete became the champion. The athlete also won gold medals at the Lithuanian Youth Championship and the Baltic and Lithuanian Youth Indoor Championships.

“During these years, I have learned to be more psychologically stable. I tried not to bite myself after failures, but on the contrary – to push forward, not to lose self-confidence and to raise my head higher. However, you learn the most from defeats,” J. Feodorovaitė reviewed 2025.

In the championship medal standings, the Lithuanian national team took 25th place, and the best performance was performed by the Italians, who won 14 medals (six gold).

In total, Lithuanians have won two gold, four silver and two bronze medals in the history of the European U20 Championships. The next Old Continent Championships will take place on July 15-18, 2027 in Bydgoszcz (Poland).

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Photo by Darius Kibirkščis.