The line between the possibility of winning a medal and being disqualified is very thin.
Sometimes even one hundredth of a second can determine success in a relay, where it is important not to jump into the pool too early after a teammate touches the wall.
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Lithuanian swimmers experienced this during the team’s most important first-day start at the European Swimming Championships in Paris.
The half-full 5,000-seat stands at the Paris Olympic Sports Center roared as 20 teams began the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay competition.
Lithuanian swimmers – Tomas Lukminas, Danas Rapšys, Tomas Navikonis, and Kristupas Trepočka – started one after another in the second qualifying heat and set a Lithuanian record – 7 minutes 5.93 seconds.
However, with the record came some anxiety.
“Maybe too much strength, too much excitement before the start, so perhaps the start was performed too riskily. My start time was fast, so the thought came that there could be a disqualification. But the reaction time was recorded as 0.00 seconds,” said K. Trepočka, who started fourth among our swimmers, after the qualifying finish. “So I swam the first 50, 100 meters thinking there might be a disqualification.
But I still worked as hard as I could. In the end, it turned out there was no disqualification on my part.”
Lithuanian swimmers breathed easier.
The overall result was significantly better than at the 2024 European Championships in Belgrade, where the same quartet of swimmers won the team gold for the first time in the country’s swimming history, although they swam slower (7 minutes 8.04 seconds) than on Monday in Paris.
That was an Olympic year, when many strong teams and swimmers skipped the European Championships, unlike this year, when the continent’s championship that started this Monday features many of the brightest stars.
The Lithuanian team is breaking into the constellation and openly hopes for a medal in the final on Monday evening, when the eight best qualifying teams will race for the awards.
Only the Germans, who confidently won the first heat (7 minutes 4.83 seconds), and the British, who beat our team in the second heat (7 minutes 5.07 seconds), swam faster than the Lithuanians in the qualifiers.
“Definitely, yes,” nodded firmly Lithuania’s most decorated male swimmer D. Rapšys when asked if such a result is a serious claim for a medal.
Behind Lithuania in the qualifiers were Israel (7 minutes 6.71 seconds), representatives of the country-aggressor Russia hiding under the neutral athletes’ status (7 minutes 7.72 seconds), Italians (7 minutes 8.73 seconds), French (7 minutes 9.33 seconds), and Greeks (7 minutes 9.53 seconds).
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“Russians and Germans can still push harder, the British – that’s clear anyway. But we will also put in another fast swimmer. We can definitely fight for a prize place. Whether we succeed – it all depends on us,” said D. Rapšys.
The composition of the Lithuanian team will change because the national team coaches planned that the 17-year-old talent Tajus Juška would warm up by swimming 50m butterfly on Monday morning and then join the final lineup in the evening.
“As far as I understand, I will give up my place to him. His season result is definitely significantly better, so it will be better for the overall team result if he swims,” admitted T. Lukminas.
This one of the four Panevėžys swimmers who swam in the morning will honorably give way to the young Kaunas native T. Juška, as he himself was not satisfied with his swim in the relay, where he swam first on Monday.
“There were a couple of misunderstandings. I swam first myself, but I couldn’t achieve the result I wanted and worked for. But the team will improve,” said T. Lukminas, who, like the other swimmers, will start several more times in other events this week.
The Lithuanian team surged among the leaders when D. Rapšys jumped into the pool, followed by another Panevėžys native T. Navikonis.
“I was worried not about the start, but about the placement. It seemed I started too easily, but the result finally showed that everything was fine. I swam the last 50 ‘sideways-lengthwise.’ But everything went well,” rejoiced T. Navikonis.
“Everything looked not bad, the morning – as expected. It even seemed I was swimming faster, but not bad,” reassured D. Rapšys. “The team swam well, the plan was fulfilled.”
The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay final – 8:33 PM Lithuanian time.
“Now – to swim about a kilometer to relax,” T. Navikonis planned after a short interview in the reserve pool to relax his muscles.
“We swim, eat, sleep, and go,” added D. Rapšys. “Everything the same today and all week.”
