On Saturday, Beatričė Juškevičiūtė finished her performance in the crowded Tokyo Olympic Stadium. At the World Athletics Championships, the Lithuanian won the heptathlon, or more precisely – the remaining three heptathlon events. The Lithuanian, who competed for two days with the world’s most capable multi-athletes, took 14th place (6151 points) in the debut world championships.

On Friday, the athlete covered the 100 m hurdles in 13.03 seconds. (season record), jumped 1.62 m in the high jump sector, pushed the ball 14.17 m, and ran the 200 m distance in 23.80 seconds. After the first day, the athlete ranked 16th and promised to fight in the remaining events.

Today, the heptathlon competition continued from the long jump competition. B. Juškevičiūtė managed to jump 5.76 m, but everything was kept on an extremely thin line. In the heptathlon, the athletes perform only three jumps each. The first two jumps of the Lithuanian were not counted, so the last attempt to record the result and collect points remained. The jump was made, but the red color lit up on the screen, which informed about the uncredited jump. However, B. Juškevičiūtė and coach Justinas Byron, who sat in the stands, and the Secretary General of the Lithuanian Athletics Federation Nijolė Medvedeva disagreed with this decision and said that the resistance table had not been crossed.

Finally, a formal protest was filed, which was eventually granted. In addition to B. Juškevičiūtė’s results in the table, instead of “x”, the result was 5.76 m. For three uncounted jumps, 0 was written in the points graph, which would have buried any hopes of fighting for a higher place, but after the recorded result, points also appeared (777).

“I don’t understand the rules so well, but when you make a jump and see that there is still a white gap left before the table, it was very difficult to finish with zero. It wasn’t the best jump, but finishing with zero would be no fun at all. We fought for those points and poured a lot of energy. At that time, the competition turned around. After the first day and the long jump when you don’t succeed… It seems that there is no energy, it is not fun. You think it could have been better, but it didn’t work. When it seemed that everything was over and I got a second chance, I really wanted to fight,” B. Juškevičiūtė said about the protest won and the second breath she gained.

After the long jump competition, the multi-athletes were waiting for the javelin throwing competition. In it, the Lithuanian representative threw the tool 46.66 m, and the whole performance was crowned by an 800 m run. B. Juškevičiūtė covered the distance in 2 minutes 14.90 seconds. And then he found out his final place in the championship.

“I feel complete. It’s always fun to finish [the heptathlon]. A bit of an achievement – the first World Championship. It’s sad that everything didn’t work out. Until we manage the jumps, there is no chance to win a medal. It’s a better feeling when you’re going through a multi-fight where you’re successful. Then it’s easier, there is energy, desire, and now you have to fight with yourself. At the World Championship, you want to fight, everyone around you is trying. The feeling is a little different, it’s still the biggest competition of my career. I hope that from this time on I will only step up. You will have to roll up your sleeves and figure out the high jumps and long jumps. These are my biggest obstacles in this multi-fight at the moment. Everything else is not bad. There is room for improvement, but I also see an opportunity to be among the medalists. I hope that my time will come,” B. Juškevičiūtė emphasized the weak points and looked hopefully into the future.

Last year, the athlete, who made her debut at the European Championships, took 13th place. In 2024, it was not long before the start of the Paris Olympics, but this dream was not destined to come true. This year, the athlete, who made her debut at the European Indoor Championships, won the pentathlon and won the 8th place.

The multi-athlete was not satisfied with the final result in Tokyo and told about the potential she felt: “Not satisfied [with the position]. It seems that 6600 points could have been collected. I feel like I can get into the top six or eight. You just need the best two days. Now it didn’t work, but everything happens. You will have to sit down, review everything, rest a little and then get back to work. We have been working for the third year, we are pouring out a lot of energy, but the long jump and the high jump are not very successful. We have achieved our goal of qualifying for the World Cup, but now we need to rethink what we can do differently to make it better. Maybe we should change the acceleration. The data is there, it seems that if the barrier run is successful, then the long jump should also be successful. We need to rethink and try to move forward in other ways.”

The world champion for the first time in her career was the American Anna Hall (6888 points). The silver medal was won by the Irish Kate O’Connor , who broke the national record (6714 points), and the bronze medal was shared by the American Taliyah Brooks (6581 points) and the British Katarina Johnson-Thompson (6581 points).

A. Hall is a good friend of B. Juškevičiūtė, so the Lithuanian spoke very happily about the victory of the American: “Very happy. Anna is the kind of person who works like no other. He is the only person who can spend eight hours a day on the track. Not everyone can do that, because there will be injuries. She works a lot, so it’s nice to see that she is successful not only at the beginning of the season, but also in the most important competitions.”

There has been no heptathlete from Lithuania at the World Championships since 2011, when Austra Skujytė last competed in the world championships. The legendary multi-athlete participated in six World Championships, and her best performance was in 2005 in Helsinki (4th place).

“Austria has always reaped laurels. I wanted to follow in her footsteps. She has also returned with medals, so it was always fun to look at her. It’s nice to participate in the same competition where Austra used to participate,” said B. Juškevičiūtė.

This year, the World Championship debutant improved both the pentathlon (4413 points) personal record and the heptathlon (6295 points) personal record. However, there is an interesting trend in B. Juškevičiūtė’s career – the personal record is improved at the beginning of the season, and later it is not possible to get close to it: “It seems that every year I put a hundred points. I don’t really like the fact that in the first competition you achieve a personal goal, and then the results are similar – 50 points to one side or the other. At the beginning of the season, I’m not even so prepared. It seems that the further away, the better [form] should be put together, but maybe I can’t handle my head.”

B. Juškevičiūtė, who has been working with coach J. Byron for many years, did not spare him nice words and added that high results should be achieved now: “We understand each other. He knows what works for me. We both want to improve. I am his first multi-athlete, so we really grow together and try to figure everything out together. I’m 25 years old, so it’s not that much time [to get results].”

Lithuania is represented by 11 track and field athletes at the World Championships. The Planet Championships in the Far East take place from September 13 to 21. On the last day of the championship, Mykolas Alekna, Martynas Alekna and Andrius Gudžius will start in the men’s discus throw final. Watch their performance live on LRT from 2:10 p.m.

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Photo by Alfredas Pliadis