On Sunday, the last day of the European U23 Athletics Championships took place in Bergen (Norway). On the fourth day of the competition, we saw Lukas Lasevičius and Tauras Jokūbas Grincevičius, who returned to the championship after a 16-year break, and Lukas Lasevičius and Tauras Jokūbas Grincevičius, who won the 10000 m athletic walking distance.
The last time we had the women’s 4×100 m relay at the European U23 Championship was in 2009. At that time, Lithuania was represented by Silva Pesackaitė, Lina Andrijauskaitė, Sonata Tamošaitytė and Lina Grinčikaitė, and this quartet won the third place (44.09 seconds).
This time Neda Lasickaitė, Gabija Klimukaitė, Andrė Ožechauskaitė and Ema Rupšytė joined the starting line. This team completed the stadium lap in 45.34 seconds, took the 6th place in its qualifying run, and the 11th position in the championship. 8 teams made it to the final, and the result of the last girls to qualify was 44.30 seconds.
“I think we are all satisfied, because it was fun and everything went well. The most important thing was to bring the pole to the finish. We have done so, so we are happy. Now when we find out that we had the baton after so many years, it is even better,” said A. Ožechauskaitė.
N. Lasickaitė was also happy with the start and result of the relay: “We kept talking about how long we hadn’t had the U23 relay here, but we didn’t think that it would be so long. As if without training and with two barrier players – this is a good result.”
“We all said that we came to enjoy, so that’s what we did – we ran and enjoyed,” added G. Klimukaitė.
We remind you that the track and field athletes also competed in individual competitions. The 18th place in the 100 m race qualification was won by E. Rupšytė (11.70 seconds), while A. Ožechauskaitė took the 26th position (12.13 seconds) in this event. N. Lasickaitė, who participated in the 100 m barrier race qualification, improved her personal record (13.72 seconds) and took 26th place, while G. Klimukaitė, who also competed in this event, finished 44th (14.27 seconds).
L. Lasevičius, who took the 30th place in the 10000 m athletic walking event, covered the distance in 48 minutes 53.74 seconds.
“It went badly. We planned to go on a personal record. Fatigue was felt and the temperature was quite high. I didn’t expect it to be so hot. I thought that I would start and go according to plan, but it was brutally difficult because of the heat,” said L. Lasevičius after the finish. The Bergen Stadium was sweltering with a temperature of 28 degrees today.
The walker, who has already competed in the European U18 and U20 Championships in the past, said that he will gain experience from these competitions. In addition, he does not forget to thank coach Viktoras Meškauskas, with the help of whom he managed to improve both the 10000 m (44 minutes 30.75 seconds) and 20 km (1 hour 34 minutes 48 seconds) sports walking personal records this year: “It’s not an easy road, but it’s difficult to improve the result every time. The coach, hard work and perseverance contributed the most to personal records.”
Soon T. J. Grincevičius crossed the finish line, taking the 31st place in the championship and covering the distance in 50 minutes 23.41 seconds.
“It was difficult. The plan was to show a much better result. Not a very good performance. Probably because of fatigue and heat. I wanted to improve my personal record, but now I am very far from it,” said T. J. Grincevičius.
In 2023, the athlete participated in the European U20 Championships, and this year he also managed to improve his personal records in the 10000 m (45 minutes 13.05 seconds) and 20 km (1 hour 34 minutes 33 seconds) sports walking events: “There was no fear and excitement, not the first competition like this. And to the personal records, coach V. Meškauskas contributed the most.”
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Photo by Alfredas Pliadis
