The Lithuanian Short Course Nationals wrapped up yesterday ending a competition full of national records for the European nation.
Danas Rapšys broke a Lithuanian record in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:44.19 to not only break the previous mark of 1:45.08, but come first by almost seven seconds. Jonas Zakarauskas was second in the final with a 1:50.51.
He came very close to breaking another one in the 100m fly, dropping a 51.92 to win. The current record stands at 51.81 set back in 2009.
Rūta Meilutytė, the star of the Lithuanian national team, came home with a couple big wins. In the 50m freestyle she demonstrated her sprinting prowess and came close to her national mark of 24.95 with a time of 25.07.
In the 100 free she was also off her record by a slight margin touching in at 53.91 for gold to fall slightly short of her own national record of 53.54.
She did manage to break a national mark in the 50m fly, coming in hot with a 26.62 to touch first. That time broke her own national record of 26.85 which she set back in December of 2013 at last year’s Lithuanian Short Course Nationals.
Her freestyle and fly swims were impressive, but she also swam very quickly in the breaststroke events which are her speciality. She won the 50 with a 29.47 and set a new championship record in the 100 with a 1:02.88.
The women’s 800m freestyle meet record was downed by Jūratė Ščerbinskaitė who rocked an 8:45.99 to touch first. The record she broke was her own, and she was just short of her national mark of 8:43.50 which she set in 2013. She won the race by almost 25 seconds.
Giedrius Titenis, one of the country’s top breaststrokers, was a 27.07 in the 50 to come home with a win. In the 100 breaststroke he set a new championship record of 58.25 and was 22 one-hundredths off his national mark. He grabbed the breaststroke sweep with a 2:08.55 in the 200.
The Kauno PM team broke the Lithuanian record in the 4x100m medley relay with a 4:17.21. They held the previous record at 4:17.90 which was set at the Lithuanian nationals in 2012.
For full meet results click here.
