At the European Modern Pentathlon Championship in Istanbul, the Lithuanian duo won the country’s first medal since the pentathlon competition format was updated – silver in the men’s relay, writes pentathlon.lt.
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“Before the start in the lift, I told Paulius that we should practice biting the medal. I think we manifested that – later we stepped onto the podium and won an honorable second place. Very big emotions overwhelmed us, but we try not to get carried away because there are still starts ahead. It’s nice, fun, but we need to move forward and fight for higher places in individual competitions,” said J. Kalaminskas.
The Lithuanians compare the men’s relay competition at the European Championship to “roller coasters” – in the fencing elimination, our country’s team took 4th place, in the obstacle course – 2nd, and in swimming – 6th.
J. Kalaminskas went out third into the final running and shooting event, and after the relay was taken over by P. Vagnorius, they rose to second place after the first shooting. The Lithuanians trailed the European champions, the French Maire Emilien and Diego Lavillat (1517 points), by 18 points.
The bronze was won by the Czechs Marek Gryczas and Matous Tuma (1489 points).
“I was a bit late on the swinging ladder in the obstacle course, but I know it could have been worse. Everything turned out well from a bad situation. There were disturbances from the referees during fencing, which threw me off a bit. In running and shooting, I tried to stay calm – I didn’t even think about whether it would be third or another place. The goal was to do my part and run as fast as possible. Since I was already running second quickly, I wanted to calm the stress, and I’m glad I succeeded,” said P. Vagnorius.
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Before this European Championship, the season had not gone well for P. Vagnorius and J. Kalaminskas – they failed to reach the finals in the World Cup stages, and Lithuanian champion J. Kalaminskas was also plagued by other misfortunes.
“This medal showed that we didn’t sit still and pick our noses – we worked and tried. This season is difficult for me – I had four teeth pulled, took antibiotics, was attacked by a virus at a camp in Spain, so I was down for a week. Currently, I have a groin strain, so I can’t perform 100 percent in fencing and the obstacle course, which hinders me, but it won’t stop me,” said J. Kalaminskas optimistically.
Already tomorrow, Wednesday, both pentathletes will start in the individual men’s competition at the European Championship along with three other Lithuanian representatives.
Today, Tuesday, four Lithuanian pentathletes are fighting to qualify for the women’s semifinals.
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