Lithuania at Rio Olympics: Day 4

Rowing

In the single sculls event, Armandas Kelmelis (18) advanced to the semifinals after finishing in the fifth position in the quarterfinals with the time 7:04.16 minutes.

Mindaugas Griškonis (30) and his partner in double sculls Saulius Ritter (27) advanced to the finals from the first position in the semifinals where they stopped the time on 6:14.61 minutes. Now the two will concentrate and will prepare for the final race and will hope to return to Lithuania as Olympic medallists.

In the women’s single sculls event, Lina Šaltytė (29) managed to qualify for the semifinals after taking the fifth position in the quarterfinals with a time of 7:38.39 minutes.

In the women’s double sculls semifinals, the Lithuanian couple Donata Vištartaitė (27) and Milda Valčiukaitė (22) finished in the second position with a time of 6:52.46 and advanced to the finals where they will hope to continue their high performance.

Sailing

In men’s RS:X event, Lithuanian sailor Juozas Bernotas (27) took part in three races (races 4, 5 ,6), when in race number 4 he finished 29th and in race number 5 he failed to cross the finish line. However, Bernotas managed to improve his performance in race number 6 when he took the 15th spot.

Gintarė Scheidt (33), who is taking part in the laser radial event in Rio Olympics, took the eight position in race 4. The Lithuanian is one of the top ten sailors in the Olympics and hopes to advance to the medal race with six races remaining to go.

Swimming

The swimming pool in Rio de Janeiro continues to disappoint Lithuanians. Simonas Bilis (22) failed to advance to the semifinals in the 100m freestyle event when he finished at the 30th position overall with a time of 49.16 seconds.

His compatriot Giedrius Titenis (27) failed to pass the qualifications in 200m breaststroke, finishing 22nd with a time of 2:12.13 minutes.

Basketball

The national Lithuanian basketball squad continues its good performance and scored its second victory in a row. Mantas Kilnietis led the Lithuanians to 89-80 against Nigeria with 21 points and 12 assists. Among the four quarters, Lithuania managed to win only one when the leadership in the game moved from side to side.

Nigeria managed to keep a lead over Lithuania 13-16 after the first quarter. The same scenario repeated in the second quarter when Lithuania scored 23 while their rivals scored 25. The teams went to halftime break with Nigeria in the lead 41-36.

In the third quarter, Lithuanian players woke up and dominated the game with 29 points. The Lithuanian defence worked well and stopped Nigeria on 13 points to give a 65-49 to the “Other Dream Team”. The final quarter was equally intense, but the Nigerians managed to win it by two points 26-24, not enough for victory, and Lithuania secured its second victory in a row and the second place in group B.

Argentina is first after a second victory in a row 90-82 against Croatia. The third game in the group saw Spain, that had lost in the first round 70-72 to Croatia, meet with Brazil that had lost to Lithuania 82-76. The Spaniards, who came as favourites to fight for a medal, lost for the second time in a row to the home team in a dramatic match with a score of 66-65. Spain is ranked fifth in the group while only the first four are advancing to the next round.

In the next match this Thursday, Lithuania will face Argentina in a tough match for the leadership of the group while Brazil will meet Croatia and Spain will try to recover against the last ranked team, Nigeria.