Many fun coincidences came together on Friday morning at the Paris Olympic Aquatic Center.
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Two swimmers from Panevėžys, Aleksas Savickas and Andrius Šidlauskas, made it into one of the seven heats in the 50 m breaststroke event. Both had to endure an extra minute of tension because nothing was happening in the pool before their start – only the judges were reviewing the video of the previous swim, suspecting a rules violation.
Both completed the distance at a similar speed – 29-year-old A. Šidlauskas in 27.26 seconds, and 23-year-old A. Savickas in 27.29 seconds.
Both had to wait in the pool for the last heat of the event to find out that they both advanced to the semifinals: Andrius was 16th, and A. Savickas was 17th, but he also advanced to the next stage by using the rule.
The Italian Ludovico Blu Art Viberti was removed from the top sixteen – he showed the sixth-best result, but two other Italian swimmers swam faster, and no more than two representatives from one country can advance to the event semifinals.
“We expected to qualify, so it’s no surprise. It’s great that Aleksas improved his personal record. I was a bit short of him, but I got the chance to perform in the evening, I’ll try to give my best,” said A. Šidlauskas.
“I’m very happy,” was also satisfied A. Savickas. “They held us for quite a while before the start, so I had to keep my composure (psychologically). It went quite well, although there were some silly mistakes in my swim (the start and touching the wall with hands), which I will fix before the evening start.
Andrius said he believed we would qualify, but I no longer did – we made it by a very narrow margin, so it’s really cool.”
A. Savickas admitted that he was frozen by the screen while waiting for the news on whether he would advance to the semifinals.
“Time stood still,” laughed the swimmer.
For A. Savickas, the 50 m sprint is not the main event; he usually focuses on the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. In these events, he was 11th and 13th, respectively, in this European Championship.
“If someone had told me three years ago that I could compete with the elite in the 50 m event, I wouldn’t have believed it. The 50 m breaststroke feels like a game to me. I’m always curious how it will go, there is no pressure,” said A. Savickas.
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Meanwhile, the event has revived the desire to swim for A. Šidlauskas.
The experienced swimmer had been walking around like he had sold his land all week because he did not qualify for the semifinals in his only event, the 100 m breaststroke, as he himself said – for the first time in the European Championships.
“I didn’t even know what to do. The motivation to swim was gone, I didn’t swim on Wednesday anymore, everything was tragic.
But then I went to the gym, exercised, recovered, rebooted my brain. Today is very good,” said A. Šidlauskas, who holds the Lithuanian record in the 50 m breaststroke – 27.15 seconds. “The motivation to swim has returned because I was already thinking that I needed a break from swimming. I didn’t know if I still wanted to swim. Now the fire has lit up again.”
A. Šidlauskas was also pleased by the fact that Lithuanians in their heat beat Adam Ramsay-Peaty.
The 31-year-old Englishman, who has three Olympic gold medals, 8 world champion titles, and 16 European champion titles, has returned to swimming after a break but is no longer unbeatable – on Friday he was 20th in the qualifiers.
“Still a world champion, record holder. Even though he performed poorly, there is still a feeling: click, I beat him,” smiled A. Šidlauskas. “We know it’s hard for him, it’s good that he did well in the 100 meters, although he expected more in this championship.”
In the Lithuanian heat, there were not only A. Ramsay-Peaty but also swimmers from Ukraine and Russia.
Ukrainian Stepan Babenko had to swim and before that wait for the start together with the Russian representative Ivan Kozhan, whose country is bombing his, and who competes in the European Championships under a neutral status.
Asked if he feels tension between representatives of the warring countries, A. Savickas said: “The waiting area is a place where there is a shared pre-start tension for everyone. It’s not a place to think about other things.”
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