Over three hundred athletes from all over the country competed for championship titles in two age groups.
14-year-old Tajus Juška from Kaunas collected the most FINA points (based on the sum of three individual events) both among juniors and among juniors, who won a total of eight gold and two silver medals.
The young pupil of Kaunas sports school "Startas", who swims faster and faster with each competition, even improved the national records of his peers (up to 15 years) six times during the championship.
In the boys' 100 m butterfly selection held on Friday, T. Juška finished in 55,23 seconds. and confidently surpassed his own best achievement for boys under 15 (56,01 seconds). In the western part of the competition, he was even faster, shaving another 0,23 seconds off his peers' record to win the gold medal.
A similar scenario was repeated in the men's 50 m freestyle event on Saturday.
The man from Kaunas, who set a new 14-year-old record (23,55 seconds) in the selection, performed even better in the evening swim, where he finished in 23,32 seconds. Prior to this competition, his personal best was 23,79 seconds.
In Sunday's competition, T. Juška renewed two more records of his peers.
The young athlete confidently won the boys' 100 m freestyle qualification, where he showed 51,13 seconds. result and significantly surpassed the record of his career and the Lithuanian under-15 boys' record (51,78 seconds). Although he swam slower (51,42 seconds) in the A final in the evening, it was enough for another gold medal.
The last record in this competition was achieved by T. Juška in the boys' 50 m butterfly final, where he finished in 24,79 seconds. The previous best result of the country for 14-year-olds also belonged to this athlete (24,98 seconds).
The young record holder, who is training at the "Girstutis" swimming pool in Kaunas, was happy with the results achieved, although he assured that there was no special preparation for this championship.
"I have already participated in competitions in the Lazdynai basin. I really like this pool. Very good indeed. And I showed good results last time. I am really satisfied. The water is neither too cold nor too warm, right through the middle, as it should be - the champion shared his impressions. - The goal was to see what the current form is. Actually, we didn't prepare much for this competition. We just wanted to see how I was doing at the moment."
Although due to his age, he will not be able to start at the European Youth Olympic Festival this summer, after the competition in Vilnius he will begin more intensive preparations for the next serious start - the European Youth Championship.
"Of course, there is some excitement before this championship, but when you stand on the starting tower, it ends," said T. Juška, who swims for Kaunas sports school "Startas".
Kostas Vaičiūnas (Panevėžio
"Žemyna"), while Titas Štuopis (Marijampole sport center) took the third place.
Guoda Stančikaitė, pupil of the Kaunas Swimming School, became the best swimmer in the youth age group.
In the competition in Vilnius, the young champion was the fastest among the participants in all breaststroke events.
G. Stančikaitė covered the 50 m distance in 32,92 seconds, twice as long - in 1 minute. 11,71 seconds, and in the 200 m distance, she recorded 2 minutes. 33,98 sec. the result. Kaunietė also successfully improved her personal records (50 m - 32,94 sec.; 100 m - 1 min. 11,80 sec.; 200 m - 2 min.
33,75 seconds).
The second place in the youth age group went to Ieva Visockitei (Kaunas swimming school), and the third place was taken by Barbora Mileišytė (Capital sport center).
Another national record for under-15 boys was broken in the 200m breaststroke event.
Herkus Andronatij, the junior champion from Klaipėda, who won silver in the final swim, covered the distance in 2 minutes. 23,38 sec. and set a new record for his peers. The previous achievement from 2015 belonged to Erik Kapocciis (2 min. 23,50 sec.). Dominykas Šulskis became the youth champion of this event (2 min. 22,01 sec.).
On the last day of the competition, another Lithuanian under-15 boys' record was renewed in the 800 m freestyle event. Emilis Panumis from Kaunas, who won bronze in the junior group, covered the distance in 8 minutes. 54,30 sec. and improved the record held by Povilas Strazdas since 2011 (8 min. 56,41 sec.). Giedrius Cirtautas, swimmer of the Klaipėda Amber Sports Center, became the junior champion (8 min. 44,83 sec.).
Emilija Pociūtė from the Šiauliai swimming center became the best swimmer of the competition among juniors
"Dolphin". The young athlete was unbeaten in all girls' backstroke events (both age groups) and won a total of six gold medals.
The woman from Šiauliai managed to successfully improve her personal career records. She completed the 50m backstroke in 29,77 seconds, the 100m backstroke in 1 minute. 4,34 sec., and 200 m back in 2 min. 20,51 sec. Prior to this competition, her best times in these events were 29,99 sec, 1 min respectively. 6,03 sec. and 2 min. 21,83 sec.
Augustė Jakštaitė (Panevėžys "Žemyna") took the second place in the overall junior standings, and Guoda Tručinskaitė (Šiauliai swimming center "Delfinas") took the third place.
Among the boys in the junior group, the first place went to Mantas Kaušpėdas from Klaipėda.
The pupil of the Klaipėda "Gintaro" sports center was the fastest in the 100 m backstroke (in both age groups) in this competition, where he recorded 56,88 seconds in the final swim. the result.
M. Kaušpėdas also became the junior champion while swimming in the 50 m butterfly, and in the youth group he won silver in the same event (25,03 seconds - a new personal record). He also added a bronze in the youth group and a silver in the youth group in the 200 m backstroke event (2 min. 8,41 sec.).
Jonas Kipras Gadliauskas (Kaunas Swimming School) was second in the junior category, and Arnas Augustinavičius (Panevėžys "Žemyna") was third.
Kaunas swimming school athletes won the largest number of medals in the championship, winning a total of 19 gold, 12 silver and 25 bronze awards.
After these competitions, the final composition of the swimming teams of the European Youth Championship and the European Youth Olympic Festival should be revealed - the candidates for the relays have been confirmed.
