The Lithuanian swimming musketeers, including the young D’Artagnan, were ready.
31-year-old Danas Rapšys, 23-year-old Tomas Navikonis, 20-year-old Kristupas Trepočka, and 17-year-old Tajus Juška appeared holding hands, raising their arms high, in front of 5,000 spectators filling the stands to capacity.
In the fluctuating race, they swam in 7 min. 3.53 sec. and set a Lithuanian record, cutting off even one and a half seconds from the record set in the morning when they were third in the qualifying among 20 teams.
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“We pulled, pulled, and finally reached that record,” said D. Rapšys in the evening, looking for a sip of water with a dry throat after the finish.
The Lithuanians took fifth place, although everything changed during the race, and the spectators were literally jumping from their seats.
The first to jump, D. Rapšys was fast, but a couple of lanes away from him, like a cruiser raising waves and noise, was Leon Marchand.
The French swimming prodigy, who skipped the qualifiers, swam faster than the world record curve, so the crowd went wild seeing the spectacular start of the relay.
“We performed really well, but you saw how others swam! Marchand jumped in – when I was swimming, the pool started shaking, I didn’t understand what was happening!” said D. Rapšys in amazement.
“And I knew it wasn’t because of you the pool was shaking,” interjected T. Navikonis.
“Definitely not because of me,” confirmed D. Rapšys. “Just wow… Others also swam cosmic splits. So, everyone prepared well, the pool is really fast, there will be high results. It will be interesting to dig in.”
Starting sixth, T. Navikonis swam similarly to D. Rapšys (1 min. 45.62 sec.), but in his leg managed to lift the Lithuanian team among the leaders and even flash in first place.
“I paced myself more evenly, it seems everything went well, I have no complaints,” said the Panevėžys native, who swam in 1 min. 45.45 sec.
Lithuania’s position dropped when the leaders of other teams jumped into the water, and K. Trepočka’s efforts (1 min. 47.16 sec.) this time did not bring the result the young swimmer wanted.
“The personal time is not pleasing,” K. Trepočka was somewhat disappointed. “I’m happy for the team, for what it did, what it achieved.”
After the three Panevėžys swimmers, T. Juška jumped into the water, replacing Tomas Lukminas in the national team, who swam in the morning.
The 17-year-old from Kaunas swam the fastest among ours (1 min. 45.30 sec.), lifted the team to fifth place, and the face of Ieva Jurkūnaitė, who cheered for her compatriots in the stands and flashed on the race screen, reflected more or less the tension of the fans – the drama was great because the ranks of the prize-winners were unclear for a long time.
“There were technical shortcomings, but I executed the distance quite well. Of course, the expectations were a bit higher for myself. It is what it is. The result pleases,” said T. Juška. “Maybe it’s not the best, but it pleases.”
The first place was won by the British, considered favorites of the event (7 min. 1.52 sec.), who had three titled swimmers of this event.
Lifted by L. Marchand, the French won silver (7 min. 2.23 sec.), bronze went to the Germans (7 min. 2.28 sec.). Italians (7 min. 2.82 sec.) slipped in among the prize-winners and Lithuanians.
Behind ours were Russian swimmers who started under a neutral status, consoling themselves after the finish and explaining to their country’s media representatives why they failed.
“No difference,” D. Rapšys said when asked about overtaking the representatives of the aggressor country. “We swam to make our results, to distribute our strength well. How it went, it went. It didn’t matter to me who overtook and who stayed behind us. The important thing is to take the highest place possible, and we significantly improved the morning result. Well, if someone gave us to swim again tomorrow, I think we would improve even more.”
