Team Lithuania at Rio Olympics: Race walkers

The male part of the team will include Arturas Mastianica, Marius Šavelskis, Tadas Šuškevičius, and Marius Žiukas.

Arturas Mastianica, who will celebrate his 24th birthday shortly before the games start, will race in the event for 50 km. Mastiancia achieved his personal best result earlier this year in the race in Dudince Dudinska, Slovakia, where he finished 28th spot with a time of 4:04:49.

Tadas Šuškevičius, 31, will be the second Lithuanian at the event. Šuškevičius‘s best result was also achieved in the Slovakian city Dudince Dudinska, but during the race in 2014. There, the Lithuanian managed finished 22nd, in 3:51:58 hours. Šuškevičius didn’t compete in this year’s race in Dudince Dudinska.

Marius Šavelskis will compete in the shorter distance of 20 kilometres. The 21-year-old claimed his personal best result earlier this year during the race in Podebrady, the Czeck Republic, where he finished in 01:23:14, securing the ninth place.

Another Lithuanian in the event will be 30-year-old Marius Žiukas, whose personal best result is 1:21:40 that he achieved during the home race in Alytus where he finished fourth. Žiukas‘s best result in 2016 was in the Slovakian city Dudince Dudinska where he stopped the clock at 1:22:31, a result that gave him the 11th place.

The three female Lithuanian race walkers are Neringa Aidietytė, Živilė Vaiciukevičiūtė and Brigita Virbalytė-Dimšienė. All of them will compete in the 20-kilometre race.

Neringa Aidietytė, 33, claimed her best result in Alytus 40th Anniversary International Walking Festival in 2014 where she finished first with a result of 1:29:01. Aidietytė also holds the Lithuanian national record. This year, Aidietytė‘s best result was in Dudince Dudinska, Slovakia, where she finished the race in 1:31:20, in the seventh place.

Brigita Virbalytė-Dimšienė also achieved her personal best result in the Alytus racing event, in 2011. She finished the race in 1:30:15, beating all her competitors. Earlier this year, she was close to beating her best result in Rio Maior Grande Prémio Internacional em Marcha Atlética race in Portugal. Virbalytė-Dimšienė finished the race with a time of 1:30:48, just 33 seconds behind her personal best.

Another Lithuanian to compete in the race walking event is 20-year-old Živilė Vaiciukevičiūtė. The young Lithuanian claimed her personal best result during the 2016 season during the race in Dudince Dudinska, Slovakia, where she finished in the 19th place with a time of 1:35:33.