Medals! Silver and unexpected bronze of the Lithuanian rowing duo Sports

Sunday brought good news at the European Rowing Championships in Szeged (Hungary).

34-year-old Donata Karalienė and 22-year-old Dovilė Rimkutė won silver medals in the double row competition.

The gold was won by the Norwegian crew – Thea Helseth and Inger Seim Kavlie, who covered the distance of 2000 m in 7 minutes. 39.42 sec.

Lithuanian rowers were 2.08 seconds behind the champions.

Last year’s European champions from Romania, Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis, were behind the Lithuanians, who were separated from the winners by 4.24 seconds.

The other crews in the final were more than 12 seconds behind the champions.

With the headwind blowing, the Lithuanians started in the second lane in the 2000 m distance.

Dressed in warm-up clothes under normal clothes, our female rowers started strongly and took a slight lead among the four crews that were advancing.

In the middle of the distance, after covering one kilometer, two leading teams emerged: Lithuanian and Norwegian. Meanwhile, the Romanians, who became European champions last year, began to fall behind. Even further behind were the Czech, Irish and Swiss crews.

In the second part of the distance, the Norwegians, who were the fastest in the selection, began to overtake the Lithuanians by half a boat’s length.

In the end, the finish was such that our national team won silver medals for the second year.

Unexpectedly high place of G. Bieliauskas

A total of four Lithuanian representatives started in the A finals.

In the men’s single row boat race, Giedrius Bieliauskas, who surprised the country’s rowing community by only reaching the final, tried to fight for a medal.

The 26-year-old Lithuanian started the final at the lowest pace, but held on in fourth place and tried to keep up with the Dane, who swam in third place.

With a powerful finish, G. Bieliauskas finally won the bronze and raised his hand victoriously – this is the first award of this level in the career of this rower.

The gold was won by the German Oliver Zeidler, who in 2000 won in 7 minutes. 38.47 sec.

Silver went to Greek Stefanos Ntouskas, who was 2.89 seconds behind.

4.88 seconds separated G. Bieliauskas from the winner, and 6.03 seconds separated the Dane Sverri Nielsen, who remained behind him after the last lap. Neutral athlete Yauheni Zalaty was fifth (6.24 seconds).

Viktorija Senkutė did not keep the speed

A little later on Sunday, Viktorija Senkutė started in the A final.

The 28-year-old Lithuanian took sixth place in the single-seater race.

The gold in this event was won by Jovana Aršič from Serbia, who won in 2000 in 8 minutes. 23.42 sec. The silver went to the German Alexandra Foester (4.74 seconds behind), the bronze to the Czech Alice Prokesova (11.55 seconds behind).

V. Senkutė, who took sixth place in last year’s World Championship and secured an Olympic ticket, started briskly: the Serbian pushed far ahead, while the Lithuanian remained in 2-3 positions, racing with the German.

In the middle of the distance, V. Senkutė was in third place, but at that time she approached and overtook the other rowers in the final. Ours was 25.68 seconds behind the winner.

The duo of brothers Dovydas and Domantas Stankūnai took part in the B final on Sunday – the brothers rowing a single double boat took third place and finished ninth in the overall standings.

In total, Lithuania delegated 13 athletes to the European Rowing Championship in Hungary.

Rowers’ bends

34-year-old D.Karalienė collected the brightest colors awards together with Milda Valčiukaite ten years ago. in 2016 They won Olympic bronze in Rio de Janeiro.

in 2017 feeling very tired, D.Karalienė announced the end of her career, gave birth to twins during a three-year break in her career, and complicated motherhood due to the child’s health problems pushed her to return to rowing at the end of 2020.

Sitting in the boat again with M. Valčiukaita, she won silver at the European Championships, and took fourth place at the Tokyo Olympic Games. But at the end of the year, M. Valčiukaitė announced that now, at the age of 27, she is putting an end to her career.

D. Karalienė joined forces with D. Rimkute, a rower 12 years younger.

Last year, their duet became silver twice – they won silver awards both at the European Championship and at the World Championships. At the end of the year, the rowers were chosen as the best Lithuanian team of the year, and their coach Virgaudas Leknickas was chosen as the best coach of the year.