Rapsys & Teterevkova Notch Wins Early At Lithuanian Championships

2022 Lithuanian Swimming Championships

• Tuesday, April 19th – Friday, April 22nd
• Klaipeda, Lithuania
• LCM (5om)
• Qualifying Opportunity for World Championships/European Championships
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2022 Lithuanian Swimming Championships are taking place in Klaipeda this week, with the likes of Danas Rapsys, Andrius Sidlauskas, Kotryna Teterevkova, and Ruta Meilutyte in the pool.

This 4-day competition represents another qualifying opportunity for Lithuanian swimmers for this summer’s World Championships, although several swimmers have already nailed qualifying times previous to this.

As of the beginning of this competition, below are the Lithuanian swimmers who have qualified for Budapest thus far:

• Danas Rapsys – 200m/400m free
• Andrius Sidlauskas – 100m/200m breast
• Ruta Meilutyte – 50m breast
• Kotryna Teterevkova – 50m/100m/200m breast

26-year-old Rapsys took on the 400m free on day one, topping the field in a time of 3:47.80. The man who owns the national record in 3:43.36 from 2019 easily defeated the domestic field here, although he has already qualified for Budapest with his 3:45.39 from last year’s European Championships.

Rapsys was also slated to race the men’s 200m free, but opted out of the day 2 race, citing an injury. “While I was in Turkey I had a small back injury. I still feel it now,” Rapsys said,

In his stead, it was Tomas Navikonis who topped the field, taking the win in 1:49.77.

Also in that 200m free was youngster Martynas Bernotas, a student of Kaunas Swimming School. Although Bernotas didn’t make the final, the teen did nail a new age record for boys 13&U, posting a time of 2:07.13, a new lifetime best.

Mantas Kaušpėdas from Klaipėda also nailed a new Lithauan age record through the first 2 days of competition, hitting a mark of 27.13 for a new standard in the boys 15&U category.

The aforementioned Sidlauskas also found success early on at these nationals, hitting the top time in the men’s 100m breast. Splitting 28.13/31.64, Sidlauskas posted 59.77 to capture the gold, beating the field by over 2 seconds. A time of 59.30 is what the 25-year-old put up at the European Championships to already notch a qualifying time for Worlds.

The breaststroker also took on the 200m distance, producing an effort of 2:10.56 to collect his 2nd gold of the competition. His time of 2:09.20 from this meet last year already etched Sidlauskas’ name onto the consideration roster the Budapest.

Finally, we saw a new national record established, with Kotryna Teterevkova getting it done in the women’s 400m IM.

Touching the wall in a time of 4:55.85, Teterevkova easily blew by the previous national standard of 4:58.04 en route to logging the fastest time of her career.

After the race, the newly-minted record holder stated she had been training in the mountains at altitude and this affected her performance, despite earning the new record.

Of note, Ruta Meilutyte, who made her post-retirement return to swimming late last year, is entered in tomorrow’s 50m free and Friday’s 100m breaststroke.