Three years of dreams, faith in the success of the idea and encouragement. A year of disputes and disappointments, looking for locations and searching for sponsors. And finally it happened! First inline skating marathon in Lithuania came true after a 10-year break.
The residents of Širvintos watched a crowd of fit people with inline skates, spinning circles through the streets of the city on July 30. There was some curiosities when the cars drove onto a fenced track, and skeptical comments appeared on the Internet: “The city is not right place for rolling”. Meanwhile, the event went perfectly: nice weather conditions and scenic track made the racing entertaining, while reviews of the participants exceeded any expectations.
150 skaters from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Panevėžys, Druskininkai, Pasvalys, Ukmergė, Kėdainiai, Gargždai and other cities competed in 1 km children’s run, 9 km amateurs, 22 km half marathon and 40 km marathon rallies. The guests from Latvia arrived by personally invitation. Inline speed skating is much more developed there than in our country.
The biggest star of the event became World Cup skater Reinis Znotiņš of Riga, who covered 40 km in 1:08:46 (average speed 34.9 km/h). No athlete of his level has started in Lithuania till now. Gintarė Noreikienė, experienced marathon skater from Vilnius, was the fastest lady in same distance (1:25:02, av. 28.2 km/h).
Well-known entertainer and music producer Martynas Tyla led 22 km race from start to finish (47:58, av. 27.5 km/h). This achievement was not made by chance, inline speed skating is Martynas favorite sport for many years. Simona Urniažaitė, who made her racing debut in Širvintos, took first place in the ladies group (48:56, av. 27.0 km/h).
The podiums were fully occupied by participants from Latvia in both ladies’ and men’s distances of 9 km. Marta Lejstrauta (18:50, av. 28.7 km/h) and Martinš Baumanis (18:43, av. 28.9 km/h) became champions respectively. The fastest Lithuanian skaters were Vladas Bogomolovas of Kaunas (22:01, av. 24.5 km/h, men’s 4th place overall) and Rūta Rakauskaitė (27:17, av. 19.8 km/h, ladies’ 7th place overall).
We will not surprise anyone when we say that there are not many inline speed skating events in Lithuania. Therefore the marathon in Širvintos has become an extremely significant event for our community. We believe in the future of our sport and wish to skate a marathon in Lithuania every year.
Hosts, promoters and sponsors of marathon
