Lithuania at Rio Olympics: Day 2

Cycling

Women‘s road race for 141 kilometers took place on the third day of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Lithuanian Daiva Tušlaitė (30) finished the race at the 34th position with a time of 3:58.34 hours. The gold medal went to the Dutch cyclist Anna van der Breggen who crossed the finish line after 3:51.27 hours. The silver medallist is Sweden’s Emma Johansson, while the third place went to Elisa Longo Borghini from Italy.

Boxing

The Lithuanian boxer Eimantas Stanionis (21), who competes in the welterweight category, advanced to the round of 16 after beating 3-0 his Chinese rival Liu Wei. In the next round, the Lithuanian will fight Shakhram Giyasov from Uzbekistan who defeated Spaniard Youba Sissokho with 3-0 in the round of 32.

Swimming

Two Lithuanians competed in swimming on Day 3 in Rio. Danas Rapšys (21) failed to advance to the semifinals in 100m backstroke, finishing in the 24th spot with a time of 54.40 seconds.

The Lithuanian star, Olympic champion from London 2012 and the world record-holder Rūta Meilutytė advanced to the finals in 100 breaststroke. In the qualifications, the Lithuanian took the fourth position with 1:06.35 seconds and advanced to the semifinals.

There, Meilutytė also took the fourth spot, finishing the 100 meters with a time of 1:06.44. Rūta is going for gold and was probably saving energy for the final swim.

Basketball

Lithuanian basketball players started off with a match with the host team Brazil that got a laud support from its fans in the arena. However, the Lithuanian team was much better during the fist half. Team Lithuania won the first quarter 27-17, while the second one was even better when the Lithuanians won it 31-12. In the halftime, the scoreboard showed 58-29.

The Lithuanians were sure about the easy victory, but the Brazilians came back to the second half much more dedicated and accurate in their shots. The hosts’ defence presented many problems for the offensive game of the Lithuanians. The Brazilians managed to win the third quarter with a score of 23-12 and to close the gap to -12. The first part of the final quarter belonged totally to the Brazilians when the Lithuanian team failed time after time to find the basket. The home team narrowed the gap to -4, but the Lithuanians managed to keep their advantage and won the game with a score of 82-76.

In the next match in group B Lithuania will face Nigeria that lost 94-66 to Argentina. On the paper, Lithuania won’t have a problem against the African champions, but coach Kazlauskas will have to find solutions to the problems in offense and defense if he and the team want to win medals.