The Lithuanian curling players who lost to Canada are world senior vice-champions Sports

These are the first Lithuanian awards from the world or European curling championships in the entire history.

Four women from Kaunas – Rasa Veronika Jasaitienė, Jolanta Šulinskienė, Gaiva Valatkienė and Eglė Čepulytė – as well as Virginija Paulauskaitė from Vilnius, who joined the team this year and became the national team captain, became world vice-champions. Olga Dvojeglazova was also with the Lithuanian team in Sweden.

In the final of the championship, the Lithuanian national team lost 3:7 to Canada, which dictates curling fashion in the world, and defended the title of winners.

Canada is the leader in the world ranking and there are more than 1000 curling clubs and organizations in this country. About 3 million people play curling in this country, basically similar to the number of people in Lithuania. By the way, the Canadian men’s veteran team also triumphed in Sweden.

In the final, the Lithuanian team scored the first point in the first period, but later the Canadians won two periods in a row and took the lead 4:1. In the fifth inning, the Canadians fell even further – 6:1. In the next quarter, the Lithuanians managed to answer with two points and bring back the intrigue (3:6), but the experienced Canadians scored one more point in the seventh quarter and the match was over.

Bronze medals were won by the Scottish national team, which defeated the Swiss 6:3 in the match for the third place. A total of 18 teams participated in the Women’s Veteran Championship.

“It is known that for us, as a sports federation, the biggest achievement at the moment is the entry of the women’s national team into the 10 strongest European teams. This is a highly rated result that translates into funding points. But the World Cup, even for veterans, is the World Cup. Such an achievement is the first in our history and few team sports in Lithuania can boast of it. We are happy and proud of our team’s achievement”, said Vygantas Zalieckas, Secretary General of the Lithuanian Curling Association (LKA).

In last year’s world senior curling championship, the Lithuanians were the last, 15th. Excellent conditions in the Kaunas Ice Palace, where the Kaunas Curling Center is located, allowed our girls to achieve a huge breakthrough. Unfortunately, due to the increased occupancy of the ice palace, which will occur after the old Kaunas ice arena changes its purpose to a multi-purpose center, this curling center will no longer have the opportunity to operate.

“It’s great that the Kaunas women’s team, which gathered 10 years ago, achieved an incredible result that undoubtedly changed the established history of leaders, which was dominated by such curling countries as Canada, USA, Scotland, Switzerland, Sweden. We have proven that we have the right conditions at the Kaunas Curling Sports Center, we can aim for medals in Europe and the world. The results achieved and the experience gained will undoubtedly increase the athletes’ chances of successfully participating in the Olympic selections”, V. Zalieckas emphasized.

The World Veterans Championship in Sweden is held in conjunction with the Planet Mixed Doubles Championship and is one of the biggest and most important events of the curling season worldwide.

The Swedes became the mixed doubles world champions, who defeated the excellent Estonian team 8:4 in the final.