It’s only the second evening of the European Championship taking place in Birmingham (UK), and the emotions are packed in a wagon. Rugilė Miklyčiūtė, the first Lithuanian representative in the history of the European championships, confidently advanced to the final, while sprinter Adas Dambrauskas 15 g in the 100 m runstep. The young national track and field athletes did not hide their joy and desire to strive for even more.
Led by her second mother
European Championship debutant and multiple Lithuanian record holder R. Miklyčiūtė completed the first three heights in the pole vault qualifying competition – 4.10, 4.25, and 4.40 m – without mistakes. This latter result allowed her to take 8th place and advance to the final. A total of 12 athletes will compete in it. The 21-year-old Lithuanian tried to jump 4.50 m, but after two unsuccessful attempts, she gave up the third – her place in the final was already guaranteed.
Evaluating her impressive debut, R. Miklyčiūtė did not hide her smile. “I never even dreamed about that. It’s very hard to describe the emotions because right now I just want to lie down in bed and get a good night’s sleep. It was hard to fall asleep at night because of the nervousness; I was stressed all day. I had listed qualifying for the European Championship on my New Year’s wish list, but there wasn’t even a point to make it to the final. I exceeded all my expectations. I still can’t believe what we did here with the coach,” R. Miklyčiūtė rejoiced.
It was precisely to trainer Rita Sadzevičienė that she dedicated more kind words: “Without her, I wouldn’t even be here. She is my lucky charm. To me, she is like a second mother. We sit down and solve problems, not only sports but also personal ones. I am very happy and wish everyone to have such a coach. “
Growing sprint star
Rugilė’s peer, A. Dambrauskas , performed exceptionally well in the debut European Championships 100 m run – in the semifinals, he completed the distance in 10.38 seconds. and took 15th place. He missed the final by just 0.08 seconds. Although the sprinter did not hide a slight bitterness, he was bursting with joy at the same time.
“After the finish, there was a bit of sadness because it was possible to reach the final, and the results were not that impressive. But now I have a little time to think about it and I am truly happy. I ran with the strongest in Europe; until now, I didn’t have much experience like that, but here I held up strongly, everything was fine,” said the sprinter. When asked how he felt running alongside Olympic champion Lamont Marcello Jacobs and other stars, A. Dambrauskas said he viewed them all simply as rivals. “When you’re warming up, when you line up at the starting line, you don’t think he’s an Olympic champion. You think about how to beat him. But now, when I remember and realize… Maybe the bar was a bit too high, maybe next time,” the athlete smiles.
In the semifinal, A. Dambrauskas was the youngest. He himself says that this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. “Maybe I lacked experience. I think we saw that at the finish line – maybe I wanted to take a bit too much there… I definitely started 10 meters too early. Besides, I’m not used to running with the principle that selection is in the morning and the semifinal is in the evening. On the other hand, the plus of my age is that everything is still ahead of me. Next year, the U23 championship awaits, where you can expect a medal,” summarizes the sprinter, already crowned the fastest person in the country.
He is also about to make another impressive debut – on August 23, together with the mixed 4×100 m relay (Gediminas Truskauskas, Ema Rupšytė, Lukrecija Sabaitytė), he will participate in the “Diamond League” stage in Poland.
Photo by Alfredas Pliadis
