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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
It was a gold rush for Lithuania on Day 2 of the European Junior Championships, as the home nation gave the crowd plenty to cheer about with three wins on Wednesday night in the city of Vilnius.
One of those gold medals came from Mantas Kauspedas, who came in as the favorite in the boys’ 50 backstroke and backed that up and then some across the three rounds of racing.
The 16-year-old first put up a time of 24.95 in the prelims, lowering his own Lithuanian Record of 25.07 set in December to eclipse the 25-second barrier for the first time.
He followed up by clocking 25.06 in the semis, making him the top seed for the final by three-tenths over Italian Daniele del Signore (25.36).
In the final, it was all Kauspedas, as he rocketed to a time of 24.68 to obliterate his day-old National Record by nearly three-tenths and claim gold by two-thirds of a second, with del Signore the distant runner-up in 25.34.
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Kauspedas also came within striking distance of Kliment Kolesnikov‘s Championship Record of 24.52, set in 2018, and although he won’t turn 17 until October, he now ranks 5th among 18 and under Europeans all-time.
European Junior Rankings, Boys’ 50 Backstroke (LCM)
- Kliment Kolensikov (RUS), 24.00 – 2018 European Championships
- Ksawery Masiuk (POL), 24.44 – 2022 World Junior Championships
- Miron Lifincev (RUS), 24.56 – 2023 Russian Championships
- Miroslav Knedla (CZE), 24.64 – 2023 World Junior Championships
- Mantas Kauspedas (LTU), 24.68 – 2024 European Junior Championships
Kauspedas has made substantial improvements from last year, having placed 7th in the 50 back (25.77), 19th in the 100 back (56.88) and 30th in the 200 back (2:06.33) at the 2023 Euro Juniors.
He got some major senior international experience under his belt in February, racing at the 2024 World Championships in Doha—though he was DQed in his lone race, the 50 back.
In addition to medley relay duties, Kauspedas will close the competition in the boys’ 100 back, where he comes in as the top seed with his personal best of 54.70 set in February.
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No disrespect to this wonderful backstroke swim but how on earth was the WJR 1500 swim of Kuzey Tuncelli not swim of the week 🤷.
Lithuania seems to be on the rise!
Danas and Ruta jointly say “ahhh….we been here for a while now”.
Can also remember another good breaststroke Lithuanian from yesteryear, for such a small country they have produced some gems.