2026 LITHUANIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, April 23rd – Sunday, April 26th
- Vilnius, Lithuania
- LCM (50m)
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
After an already multiple record-breaking day to kick off the competition, day two of the 2026 Lithuanian Championships saw two more national benchmarks bite the dust.
Racing in the final of the men’s 50m backstroke, 18-year-old Mantas Kauspedas established a new Lithuanian standard of 24.54 en route to gold.
Kauspedas’ effort overtook his own former national record of 24.68 he put on the books en route to becoming the 2025 European Junior Championships gold medalist.
Behind Kauspedas in the race was Latvia’s Kristians Brencs, who settled for silver over a second back in 25.66, while Erikas Grigaitis rounded out the podium in 25.89.
Teenager Kauspedas now ranks 9th in the world on the season, sharing the position with South African world champion Pieter Coetze.
2025-2026 LCM Men 50 BACK
Kolesnikov
23.86
| 2 | Xu Jiayu | CHN | 23.92 | 06/17 |
| 3 | Pavel Samusenko | RUS | 24.12 | 06/07 |
| 4 | Oliver MORGAN | GBR | 24.36 | 04/18 |
| 5 | Georgy Yakovlev | RUS | 24.38 | 04/20 |
| 5 | Michele LAMBERTI | ITA | 24.38 | 04/14 |
| 7 | Miroslav Knedla | CZE | 24.43 | 05/24 |
| 7 | Miron Lifintsev | RUS | 24.43 | 06/07 |
| 9 | Quintin McCarty | USA | 24.45 | 06/18 |
| 10 | Isaac COOPER | AUS | 24.46 | 06/08 |
The other national record fell on the women’s side, with Ieva Jurkunaite getting it done for gold in the 400m freestyle.
Jurkunaite, who is just 16 years of age, busted out a lifetime best of 4:15.53 as the sole competitor in the field to delve under the 4:21 threshold.
Behind her was Ieva Nainyte, who clocked 4:21.44, as Ieva Visockaite bagged the bronze in 4:23.05.
Jurkunaite’s performance easily erased Sylvia Statkevicius‘ national record of 4:17.94, set at the 2025 Hollandia Spring Invitational.
As for teenager Jurkunaite, her previous personal best entering this competition rested at the 4:20.25 she produced at last year’s edition of these championshps, so she obliterated that outing with her gold medal-winning swim here.
Jurkunaite is a two-time European Junior Championships medalist, earning bronze in 2024 as a member of Lithuania’s mixed medley relay and silver last year in the girls’ 4x200m free relay.
Additional Notes
- Egle Salu of Estonia was too quick to catch in the women’s 50m breast, hitting a mark of 30.60 ahead of Kotryna Teterevkova. Teterevkova was relegated to the runner-up position in a still-swift performance of 30.87. Day one’s national record-setting Smilte Plytnykaite earned the bronze in 31.18. Salu’s outing represents a new lifetime best, overtaking the 30.97 posted at this time last year. Salu, a Cal commit for this Fall, now ranks just outside the list of top 10 performers in the world on the season.
- Andrius Sidlauskas turned in a time of 1:00.45 to beat the men’s 100m breast by over a second. Maksym Ovchinnikov of Ukraine was next to the wall in 1:01.51 and Herkus Andronatij rounded out the podium in 1:02.54.
- The men’s 200m free saw Kristupas Trepocka grab the gold ahead of Lithuanian Age Record holder Tajus Juska. Trepocka touched in 1:47.06, crushing his former PB of 1:47.72 from last year. Justka logged 1:48.17 and Kostas Vaiciunas logged 1:50.12 for a 3rd-place finish.
