On Saturday, as many as 12 matches were held in the first division of the European Team Championship, in which 16 of the strongest teams from the Old Continent collected points. The 8th place in the triple jump event was taken by Dovilė Kilty, the 9th place in the high jump event was taken by Juozas Baikštys, and Beatričė Juškevičiūtė , who set the record for the 100 m hurdle running season, finished 13th. After their matches, the Lithuanians said that they could have performed better, and the reasons for the unsuccessful result were different.
Olympian D. Kilty started her performance in the triple jump with a result of 13.29 m. Later, 3 uncredited attempts followed, and on the fifth attempt I managed to jump 13.46 m. This was the best result of the Lithuanian, which secured the 8th place. The victory was won by the German Caroline Joyeux (14.42 m).
“Of course, neither the place nor the result is satisfactory. I can’t tell you why this happened. A lot of non-countable jumps, which were not bad, but they are the way it is. This year I am not very friendly with the triple jump sectors, and I don’t know the reasons. I’m really doing well in training and I feel good, I’m not traumatized. Maybe I trained too hard and I need to lose the load,” D. Kilty considered.
The multiple Lithuanian champion participated in the fourth European Team Championship, and the memories from this competition are the best: “I really liked the competition and the first division. A wonderful feeling and a beloved championship. I did very well in the Baltic Championship, and my personal record was achieved in the European Team Championship in 2019. Definitely the best memories from these championships. Maybe this time I overloaded myself, remembering that personal record.”
At the European Indoor Championships in March, the triple jumper made a career performance when she won fourth place. The Lithuanian indoor triple jump record holder said that the championship was emotionally exhausting, so you need to rediscover yourself: “The competitors are all familiar, and I also encountered them at the European Indoor Championships. I know that I am capable of competing with the strongest European triple jumpers. That championship was very emotionally exhausting and maybe we need time to recover from it. It’s a pity that I couldn’t continue to jump today and show what I’m ready for.”
D. Kilty, who is fighting for a place in the fifth World Championships, is currently ranked 28th in the ranking system, and 36 triple jumpers will qualify for the world championships. According to the Lithuanian, it is impossible to feel calm as long as there is no standard, because the ranking table is constantly changing, and the athletes’ results in the competition have fallen in recent years: “I think that no one is sure if they do not have a standard. At the moment I am in the ranking, but that table can change very quickly. I think that with such participation, if I continue to participate like this, it doesn’t really make sense to participate somewhere before the Lithuanian championship. I’ll see how my training will go in the coming weeks and try to get in shape for the Lithuanian championship. The results in the triple jump themselves have fallen, because earlier with 13 meters you could only dream of the finals.”
J. Baikštys, who started for the second time this year, was close to recording the best result of the season. Less than two weeks ago, in the Lithuanian Athletics Federation Cup competition, the high jumper won a victory (2.20 m), and now he has overcome a height of 2.18 m in the European Team Championships and took 9th position.
“Before the season, this height would have sounded very good, but now I had higher expectations in terms of the result. I expected it to be bigger, about 2.25 m. I think I am ready for such a result. However, I try to load myself as little as possible with thoughts about the result and expectations, but if you want to, you start to feel pressure. I don’t have any more starts apart from the Lithuanian championship, the question is whether I will go to Israel in mid-July. When I return to Lithuania, I will rest for a couple of days and then I will get to work and prepare for the national championship,” J. Baikštys reviewed his performance in Madrid and commented on his future plans.
The winner of the high jump event was Czech Jan Štefela, who improved his personal record, who jumped a height of 2.33 m and won 16 points for his team. In contrast to individual championships, in the team championship, high jumpers are automatically eliminated after four unsuccessful attempts. According to J. Baikščis, representing the Lithuanian national team in such a championship is fun, and he was able to cope with the heat of Madrid quite well: “Competing as a team is perhaps more fun, because the countries compete with each other and look at which ones are the strongest. More excitement. There’s a lot of pressure, but the audience should definitely have fun. The hardest thing today was with exercise. In Lithuania, I am used to getting dressed, warming up, and it was hot here. I think it’s easier for athletes of our build to transfer the heat than for long-distance runners, walkers or representatives of other events.”
The multi-athlete B. Juškevičiūtė, who started in the 100 m hurdles race, covered the distance in 13.26 seconds. This is the best result of the Lithuanian season. However, the personal record achieved by the athlete last year, as well as the national record, is almost half a second faster (12.87 seconds).
“The result is not satisfactory. There were problems with my back a month ago, so we are trying to get into the rhythm. The eighth barrier keeps getting in the way, even though it has been going well. The best result of the season was achieved, which proves that we are moving forward. This year we started preparing for the season later, and part of the time had to be removed because of our back, so there is still a lack of training. We need training, competitions and maybe we will be able to achieve something again in the Lithuanian championship,” said the athlete after the race.
A month ago, the Lithuanian started in the prestigious multi-fight competition in Geci (Austria), where she scored 6040 points in the heptathlon event. B. Juškevičiūtė reached her personal record in April in Volnat (USA), when she scored 6295 points. Soon the athlete will start another multi-fight competition in France: “I participated in Austria immediately after back pain. A multi-fight awaits me over the weekend, a high-level competition again, for which I feel better prepared. I’m moving towards the goal of qualifying for the World Cup. The form is left over from last year and the year before, so it is important to get into the rhythm. I am 100 percent sure that I will qualify for the World Cup. I feel ready for it.”
According to the multi-athlete, it is the barrier race that is her strongest, so it would be fun to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo (Japan) in September both in this event and in the heptathlon event. In addition, B. Juškevičiūtė said that she worked a lot in the jumping competitions, so she hopes to see the results already on the weekend.
It was the first European Team Championship for an athlete, and the Lithuanian responded nicely to it: “It’s a lot of fun. In the European or World Cup, you also feel that teamwork, but not like that. It’s nice to see and support everyone again. Everyone is really trying hard for the team.” In the 100 m hurdles race of the European Team Championships, the victory was won by the Swiss Ditaji Kambundji (12.39 seconds).
After the third day of the championship, the Lithuanians were ranked 16th (102.5 points). The Finns took the 15th place (158.5 points), the Ukrainians took the 14th place (160 points), and the Italians were in the lead (290 points).
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Photo by Alfredas Pliadis
