2023-04-21 17:18:20
“The mood before the upcoming championship is good. We are after the first round of the Lithuanian volleyball sitting championship and the Baltic League matches. I think that we are in a good shape since last year, the further we go, the more we play,” said Ramūnas Rojus, who has represented the national team for many years, who was happy with the team’s sports form.
Lithuanians return to the strongest division of the Old Continent championships after a break of several years. The Lithuanian volleyball team received a ticket to these matches after receiving a name call after a successful performance in the B division of the European championships.
Along with Lithuania and host Italy, the national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, Turkey, Hungary, Slovenia and Latvia will also compete in the European Championship from October 9 to 15.
“All participating teams have a lot of experience and are strong,” he told the portal lrytas.lt Tomas Kiveris, the coach of the Lithuanian sitting volleyball team, vice president of the Lithuanian Disabled Sports Federation, told about the waiting competitors.
Although there is still a lot of time left before the upcoming championship, Lithuanian athletes are already ready to get to work.
“We will organize preparation camps where we will aim to improve technical abilities, we will analyze competition records from 2022. European Championship Division B matches, we will aim to work on the basics with players in the respective positions.
It is likely that we will have joint training sessions with the Latvian national team. We will also participate in international tournaments in Latvia and Estonia.
We will fight in the Baltic League. The team also includes the very experienced Lithuanian volleyball coach Tadas Donėla, who played for the Lithuanian volleyball team at the 2019 European Championship. We hope that he will be able to participate in many training camps and the championship and convey his experience and advice during them”, – the national team strategist reasoned about the upcoming preparations for the European Championship.
The strength of the team is fighting spirit and family spirit
R. Rojus, who has been representing the Lithuanian volleyball national team for nine years, does not hide that a lot has changed during his time in the team, but the national team has managed to keep its main face – combativeness.
“Nine years ago, when I made my debut in the national team, I was just a rookie. In my eyes then, the national team was very strong, brave and fighting. The biggest change in those nine years was that we went to international competitions. I also got stronger as a striker.
We fight everyone equally. In my opinion, other European national teams are a bit more technical, they spend more time training together, but we don’t give up on anything, we fight as one fist and we really don’t give up on that fighting spirit.
I am very happy that every year there is one new, strong, young athlete who wants to contribute to the national team,” he said.
According to the coach of the national team, the Lithuanian sitting volleyball men’s team is a great combination of athletes from several generations. According to the average age in 2022 In December, the Lithuanian national team was the oldest in the B division of the European Championship held in France. The team consists of young athletes, there are players who have given up playing volleyball for many years.
“This is what makes our team special, because the older players pass on experience, tactical decisions and various technical tips while playing together with the younger ones.
At that time, the youth give the team their energy, drive and enthusiasm during the game, which if used properly, the team can attack well and make faster combinations.
The strength of our team comes from the fact that all generations are able to communicate perfectly with each other on the field, understand each other and always be together”, added T. Kiveris.
He was seconded by his student R.Rojus.
“The main driving force of our national team is unity, combativeness.
We are like a family – we are all very different ages. Although we are one of the oldest in Europe according to the average age, we really do not lose our combativeness, which is already becoming a kind of phenomenon – when we come to competitions, many people often underestimate Lithuania, but after the 2019 European Championship, everyone realized that Lithuania is a really combative country and it doesn’t matter at all. what age we are”, said the player of the national team.
The coach of the national team, T.Kiveris, did not spare warm words to R.Roj. According to the strategist, the long-time player of the team constantly seeks to improve, shows effort, becomes more tactical in attack and wants to fight to the last point, no matter what the situation.
The head of the team also congratulated Rapolus Micevičius, who lost his leg quite recently, but is extremely fond of sports and shows excellent results and dedication.
“At the beginning, Rapol was assigned the position of libero, which he did not really want, but he did his job responsibly and really well.” However, being an unyielding soul, he wanted to try himself in the attack, he did not give up and showed vigor, which paid off well and paid off in the meeting against the Italian national team, in this competition Rapol was no longer a libero player and showed strong vigor and courage in the game,” said the coach.
The praises of the strategist also went to national team captain Eduard Strašunskas, who is able to take the initiative in the attack during the competition and aims to lead the team to fight when there are difficult moments.
At that time, the combative Algirdas Vaičiulis shows excellent defensive abilities and organizes the team’s attack perfectly.
However, T. Kiveris says that the power of the national team lies not in individual players, but in team spirit.
“Each player has their strengths and you can say good things about each one and be happy about that. I want to note that our team is not just players, our team is a whole delegation, we travel to the competition as a unit and together we strive for the best possible result, so I want to congratulate and thank Darius Rajžiūnas, Pauliis Glaskas and Rūta Strašunskas who joined the coaching team.
Our strength is that several generations are able to communicate together and create a common result and support each other,” said T. Kiveris.
A new team is at the start of the Lithuanian championship
At the beginning of April, the first round of the Lithuanian sitting volleyball championship took place in Anykščiai, in which five teams participated. In the first round of the championship, the Vilnius “Feniks” team celebrated their victory.
Although four teams participated in the championship before the start of this season, this year the tournament was joined by one more team – Kaunas RSK. Lithuanian wheelchair basketball coach Vytautas Skučas formed this team with the initiation and support of the idea of creating a new team by the president of the Lithuanian Disabled Sports Federation (LNSF) K. Skučas.
“Together with the president of the Federation of Disabled Persons of Lithuania, Kęstučis Skučus, we thought that there is still no sitting volleyball team in Kaunas. It used to be there, but Kaunas didn’t have a team for some time, and that’s how the idea came about.
I had to put everything together again – since the fall of last year, I interviewed one and another player, it wasn’t easy, but we collected, collected and collected,” he said.
Although the beginning was not easy, the Kaunas team gained more and more speed and opened the door to the Lithuanian championship this spring. She also performed competitively in it.
“When we first got together, we didn’t even know how to hit the ball (laughs – ed.). We had to start from scratch. So I was very happy that when we went to the championship, we knew how to serve, play the combination properly and even managed to win one set, in general we were quite competitive in the championship.
Of course, our goal is not only to participate, but also to win, but we understand that this is only the beginning. We started completely from scratch, and it would take about a year, maybe even two, for full “polishing” here. But in general, I am very happy that we were able to prepare for the first round of the championship and put up a good fight in it,” said V.Skučas.
The second round of the championship is scheduled for the fall of this year. By this period, the Kaunas team hopes to improve even more and become a tougher opponent.
“I look at everything positively, I think that in the fall we will be able to compete and overtake one or another team,” smiled the Kaunas RSK coach.
Not only traditional sitting volleyball matches take place in Lithuania. The coach of the national team, T. Kiveris, explained more about the preferences of sitting beach volleyball.
“For the last two years, I have organized three integrated sitting beach volleyball tournaments, two of which took place in Vilnius and one in Marijampole.
The essence of these tournaments was to organize sitting beach volleyball and regular beach volleyball tournaments together, but all disabled, healthy or mixed teams had to participate in the sitting volleyball tournament.
Many players have participated in the tournaments, but it is a strange phenomenon that people who have not seen this sport think that it should be played in a wheelchair, not sitting on the ground. We aim for as many people as possible to learn about and see this sport,” said T. Kiveris.
The goal is to stay in the A division
Although the main tournament of the Lithuanian national team is the European Championship, it participates in several other international tournaments during the season.
The players of the Lithuanian national team play every year in nearby competitions – mainly in Latvia, where at least two high-level international tournaments are held every year, in which national teams such as Italy or Sakartvel participate.
The Lithuanian sitting volleyball team also competes in the Baltic League, which consists of four stages a year, and the team competes in the Tallinn tournament in Estonia.
“After such competitions, the athletes gain more experience in the tactical game, they feel better on the field when they have to play against unknown teams, which is still a difficult enough thing for our national team, of course the players play better with each other, they are motivated, they want to win, we watch other teams, we strive to we can also take useful things and solutions from them, or are we looking for ways to overcome them”, said coach T. Kiveris.
R. Rojus also spoke about the importance of international competitions.
“For me personally, international competitions contribute a lot to my development. The more international competitions there are, the less that excitement and the more you get used to different environments.
By fighting against other national teams, you can gain more experience, new combinations and improve with each competition,” he said.
According to him, it does not matter in which division of the European Championship the Lithuanian national team competes – the motivation to represent one’s country will always remain maximal.
“We always feel that excitement when we go to international competitions, I think it’s always healthy to be excited. It doesn’t really matter what division – we want to fight, win, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t.
We are very satisfied that we got to the A division. We know that there is a much higher level, but we also know that there are teams of equal capacity, which we will try to defeat,” said R. Rojus.
At that time, the coach of the national team has already set a goal for the team in the championships to be held in Italy in October.
“The goal is to win a place that would ensure survival in the highest European division, but for that we will have to fight hard,” said T. Kiveris.
National volleyball team’s national team’s achievements portal lrytas.lt LNSF president K. Skučas was also happy.
“I am happy about the progress of Lithuanian sitting volleyball players in Lithuania and in international arenas, I am especially happy that we entered the A division of the European Championship. This, I think, is the result of the work of all of us and it shows that the team is improving.
Already last year, the Lithuanian national team was strengthened by new, young players who achieved good sports and playing form. It is nice that we have enthusiasts of this sport, athletes, coaches who lead the national team forward for many years. I am glad that the Lithuanian Disabled Sports Federation contributed to the preparation process of the national team last year.
All this gave a new quality to the game of the Lithuanian national team, which won the fifth place in the European Championship in the B division. I wish the players not to lose fighting spirit, the coaches to keep the team spirit, and from the side of the Federation, we will do everything to ensure that the Lithuanian sitting volleyball team has the right conditions to prepare for the European Championship and represent Lithuania honorably”, reasoned K. Skučas.
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