Lithuania’s Under 19 Basketball Team World Champions!
July 2011
Lithuanian team rejoices. Photo courtesy fiba.com
On Sunday July 10, 2011, in Riga, Latvia, Lithuania’s Under-19 basketball team became world champions by decisively defeating Serbia (85:67) in finals of the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men. On the way to the finals Lithuania’s victories were also quite decisive. In the quarter-finals they won against Poland (87:75) and in the semi-finals won against Russia (85:68). Australia also took part in championship and reached the quarter-finals, when they were defeated by Serbia (93:74).
Lithuanian basketball teams in the past have won European championships, but this is only the second time that a Lithuanian basketball team of any age came to be world champions. In August 2005 the Lithuanian Under-21 basketball team also won gold in the world championship in Argentina. After the victory in Riga, the whole country was jubilant. Maybe this is going to be a good omen for the forthcoming European Basketball Championship, which will be held in Lithuania August 31 - September 18, 20011. The 2011 European championship will be played out in five cities: Panevežys, Šiauliai, Alytus, Klaipėda, Vilnius and Kaunas, with the finals taking place in Kaunas. Lithuania to date has won the European gold three times – in 1937, 1939 and 2003.

On their return the Lithuanian team is greeted by
President Dalia Grybauskaitė. Photo courtesy lrp.lt
Further information:
http://www.eurobasket.com/World-Championships-U19/basketball.asp
http://latvia2011.fiba.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroBasket_2011

On this website - Lithuania in the News:
4th September, 2003, Lithuania - European Basketball Champions!
16th August, 2005, Lithuania Under-21 World Basketball Champions
Andrius Belkus to Play in Overseas Golf Tournaments
July 2011
Andrius Belkus.
Photo courtesy “Fairfield Champion”
The 19-year-old up and coming Australian Lithuanian golfer Andrius Belkus has just been awarded the Jack Newton Junior Golf scholarship to play in England, Sweden and Lithuania.
Andrius already has a string outstanding junior golf successes and is now very excited to have the opportunity to play in Lithuania, the country of his roots. He has the dream of eventually playing on the USPGA (United States Professional Golfers’ Association) tour. In view of his golfing achievements to date, he has every chance of doing so.

Andrius, Sydney Lithuanians wish you every success!

Further information: “Fairfield Champion” 22/06/11
Also please see a number of news items about Andrius Belkus on the Sports Archive of this website.

A Brilliant start for Lithuanian Ričardas Berankis in the Australian Open
January 2011
Ričardas Berankis playing in the Australian Open.
Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
The Lithuanian tennis player Ričardas Berankis has made a brilliant start in the 2011 Australian Open. In his first match last Tuesday, January 18, he easily defeated the Australian Marinko Matosevic 6:4, 6:2, 7:5. In his next match on Thursday, January 20, he completely demolished the Argentinian David Nalbandian (ranked 21 in the world) 6:1, 6:0, 2:0. The fact that Nalbandian was exhausted after his defeat of Australian Lleyton Hewitt two days earlier in a marathon 5 hour, 5 set match, may have contributed to Berankis’ easy victory. But Berankis’ victory was still remarkable. Ričardas Berankis’ run at the Australian Open was ended in the third round as he was swept aside by seventh seeded Spaniard David Ferrer in straight sets, 2-6 2-6 1-6.

Further information:   www.australianopen.com    www.lrytas.lt 18-21/01/11

Lithuania Retains Rugby World Record
November 2010
Lithuanian rugby team during their record breaking win against Serbia.
Photo courtesy rugby.lt
The defeat of New Zealand’s rugby team by Australia’s Wallabies in Hong Kong last Saturday October 30, 2010, had a fascinating outcome for rugby in Lithuania, in that thereby Lithuania retained the world rugby record of 18 consecutive international victories. In spite of the fact that in Lithuania rugby is not a major sport, Lithuania’s national rugby team nevertheless surprised everybody by pulling off this remarkable sequence of victories over the last four years.
Lithuania reached the world record of 18 international victories in a row earlier this year by defeating Serbia on April 24, 2010. This bettered the earlier equal records of 17 wins in a row achieved by New Zealand’s All Blacks (from 18/09/65 to 14/06/69) and South Africa’s Springboks (from 23/08/97 to 29/11/98). With a new sequence of 15 consecutive victories in hand, New Zealand was this year hoping to equal and better the record of the earlier All Blacks teams. But, unfortunately, their loss to Australia’s Wallabies last Saturday paid rest to that.
So Lithuania now retains its rugby world record status. Lithuania’s record breaking run began with a victory over Hungary in 2006 and came to an end in May 8, 2010 with Lithuania’s loss to Ukraine, but Lithuania’s record will not be bettered for many years to come. The popularity of rugby in Lithuanian is now bound to increase.

Further information:
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/wallabies-hatch-great-snow-job/story-e6frg7mf-1225945857728
www.rugby.lt/naujienos/lithuania-claims-world-record-winning-run-looking-to-secure-even-greater-prize
www.guardian.co.uk 01/11/10

Australian Basketballer Brad Newley joins “Lietuvos Rytas” Basketball Team
September 2010
Australian Brad Newley now playing for “Lietuvos Rytas”.
Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
Australian basketball player Brad Newley has signed a two year contract to play with the leading Lithuanian basketball team “Lietuvos Rytas”. The 25 year old 201 cm tall Australian travelled to Vilnius straight after playing with the Australian team in the World Basketball Championship in Turkey. After a few days getting acquainted with Vilnius and meeting his new team, he began training for the new basketball season.

Further information: www.lrytas.lt 10/09/10

A Well-deserved Bronze to Lithuania in the 2010 World Basketball Championship
September 2010
Linas Kleiza in the Lithuania – Argentina match.
Photo courtesy Fiba.com
Robertas Javtokas in the Lithuania – USA match.
Photo courtesy Fiba.com
The 2010 FIBA World Championship was held in Turkey from August 28 to September 12, 2010. In the Preliminary Round, Lithuania won all of its five matches within its own group (Group D), including a win against Spain, the current World and European champions. Among the 24 countries playing in the preliminary round only two other countries had won all their five matches at that point - USA (in Group B) and Turkey (in Group C).
Lithuania then won against China (78:67) on September 7 in the Round of 16 and went on to the Quarter-finals to crushingly defeat Argentina (104:85) on September 9, in a match which was Lithuania’s finest during this championship. Lithuania unfortunately lost to USA (74:89) in the first of the two Semi-finals matches on Saturday, September 11. In the other Semi-final match, Turkey beat Serbia by 1 point. In the Final on September 12 the USA team defeated Turkey (81:64) and took the Gold, while Lithuania won the Bronze by defeating Serbia (99:88) in the third place match. The loss to the USA thus was Lithuania’s only defeat in the whole championship. In earlier international basketball competitions Lithuania has won the Gold in European championships and the Bronze in the Olympics. The 2011 European Basketball Championship will be held in Lithuania in September 2011.

Further information: www.lrytas.lt 28/08/10 – 13/09/10      http://turkey2010.fiba.com/eng
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIBA_World_Championship

Brilliant Results for Lithuanian Sports
August 2010
The Lithuanian team celebrating their outstanding win.
Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
Two weeks ago Lithuanian sports notched up some outstanding results. In the European Youth Basketball (Under 18) Men’s Championships 2010 the Lithuanian team won decisively against all opposition and won the Gold in the Championships. These were held 22 July – 1 August 2010 in the Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Lithuanians did not lose a single match. After
Živilė Balčiūnaitėrunning the marathon.
Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
a nail-biting semi-finals win against Serbia (67:66), the Lithuanians demonstrated their mastery of the game by winning 90:61 in the finals against the other semi-finalist Russia. The finals drew a crowd of 13,000, which was an all time record for Youth Basketball games in Europe. The Bronze went to Latvia.

Another outstanding result was the win by Lithuania’s Živilė Balčiūnaitė on July 31 2010 in the Women's Marathon in the 2010 European Athletics Championships, held in Barcelona, Spain. Balčiūnaitė’s time was 2:31:14. More than a minute behind Živilė was Russia’s Nailya Yulamanova in second place with 2:32:15. Italy’s Anna Incerti took third place with 2:32:48.

Further information:
www.fibaeurope-u18men.com/en/default.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_European_Athletics_Championships_%E2%80%93_Women's_Marathon
www.lrytas.lt 01/08/10
Outstanding Result for Lithuania’s Karate Sportsmen
June 2010
Rita Pivoriūnaitė welcomed back in Vilnius.
Photo courtesy lzinios.lt
Donatas Imbras. Photo courtesy lrytas.lt
At the European Karate Championship 4 & 5 June 2010 in Logrono, Spain, Lithuania’s sportsmen won 10 medals – 5 gold, 4 silver and one bronze. 149 competitors from 14 countries competed in the championship in the adults section. Lithuania took the overall top position among the competing countries.
Lithuanian gold medallists were Rita Pivoriūnaitė (2 gold), Inga Mikštaitė, Margarita Čiuplytė and Donatas Imbras. Silver medallists were Rūta Brazdžionytė, Andžejus Milevskis, Darius Gudauskas and Lukas Kubilius. Bronze was won by Mindaugas Pavilionis. This year the karate championships were particularly successful for Lithuania. So much so, that in a couple of the finals the competitors were both Lithuanians! The European karate championship in 2011 will take place in Vilnius in April and Lithuania has been selected to host the world karate championship in 2013.

Further information: www.lrytas.lt 06/06/10 www.shinkyokushinspain.com/ec2010.html

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