Aleksas Savickas has shown that he is currently the fastest man swimming breaststroke in Lithuania.
The 23-year-old from Panevėžys advanced to the 100 m breaststroke semifinal on Monday morning, finishing 11th overall among 16 participants in the evening.
Swimming in 59.77 seconds, the Lithuanian was very close to his personal best, missing the final by less than half a second.
“I think it’s a good result,” said A. Savickas. “Solid, I’m satisfied. The second half was good, I felt full power. Maybe the first 50 meters wasn’t that fast. But everything was normal.”
Was it possible to make it to the final?
“Everything is possible, but half a second is not little. Next time, then,” the swimmer smiled.
The swimmer from Panevėžys, who studied psychology at the University of Florida, graduated this year and returned to train in Lithuania, joining the national team core working in Kaunas, led by Paulius Povilionis.
“I returned two months ago, so it was a very busy period. I had to say goodbye to everyone in Florida, where there was a great fundamental stage of life, and then move – a lot of things to do,” A. Savickas said.
In the morning qualifying race, A. Savickas was twelfth among 71 swimmers who started and qualified for the evening semifinal, swimming in 59.82 seconds.
He was grateful to coach Ina Paipelienė, with whom he trained for a while in Lithuania this summer after descending from the highlands in Spain.
“There weren’t many expectations because I hadn’t competed for a long time, I had taken a break during the season. But it was a good swim, I felt the power,” the swimmer was satisfied with his athletic form.
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A. Savickas believes he will have similar ambitions in the 200 m breaststroke event at this championship.
Andrius Šidlauskas disappointed
Andrius Šidlauskas, who also started in this event, did not pass the qualifying round in the morning.
The experienced 29-year-old from Panevėžys, who has stood on the bronze podium at the European Championships during his career, finished 25th this time, swimming 100 m in 1 min 0.39 sec.
“I thought I was better prepared. The result is really poor, probably the first time in my life I didn’t make it to the European Championship semifinal.
But that’s sports, nothing can be done – I’m glad Aleksas made it to the semifinal, so I will cheer for him to take a worthy place for Lithuania,” said A. Šidlauskas.
He trained for 12 days in the Sierra Nevada highlands in recent weeks, then worked hard for 10 days in Lithuania with coach Ina Paipelienė.
“It seemed that the feeling was good, the power was good. But sometimes everything seems to go too easily. The coach briefly said that maybe I had too much strength, I rose too high (out of the water). Maybe that was the reason. It seemed I was swimming fast, but in the end it turned out I wasn’t.”
A. Šidlauskas does not plan to swim the 200 m breaststroke at this championship, so he is left with the 50 m breaststroke sprint.
In relays, A. Šidlauskas thinks A. Savickas should swim.
“He showed that he is currently faster than me, so we will probably leave the responsibility to him.”
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A. Savickas himself did not make much of the fact that he overtook his compatriot this time.
“For me, it was last place, to be honest. I was focusing on my own swim.”
