“In the lottery, of course, one would like to avoid all rivals (laughs – ed.). And seriously, we don’t have such a favorite here. Well, maybe one Frenchman that I haven’t found a cure for yet. And anyway, we are all similar – I have both won and lost against everyone. There isn’t one special one,” said O. Bareikis, a visually impaired judo wrestler fighting in the weight category up to 73 kilograms, as the draw approached.
O. Bareikis, who trains in a gym in the Saint-Denis district of Paris, is assisted daily by his sparring partner Andrej Klokov, a judo wrestler who also works as a personal trainer. In recent years, O. Bareikis has been taking his partners to all international tournaments, who have replaced coach Algis Mečkovskis in this role. The coach is now actively leading the training and giving advice to the partners.
“First of all, we protect the coach’s health. However, the coach is already of a respectable age and it is no longer time for him to compare himself with me. A sparring partner helps a lot in developing my preparation, we can work at full capacity without sparing either me or him. The training sessions are really very intense,” said O. Bareikis.
Although in 2021 At the Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo, O. Bareikis, coached by A. Mečkovskis, won bronze, and he also has the bronze of the European Championship, medals of other international tournaments, but he does not talk about the awards in Paris. Although everyone understands that his ambitions are the most serious.
“The mood is good. We arrived in the mood to finish our preparations well. So far, the mood is really very good, health is good, everything is in order. We are preparing, trying and coordinating the whole schedule. There are currently no serious injuries. Every athlete will say that there are always those minor injuries, but they can be dealt with, and there is no tragedy as a result,” the judo wrestler was optimistic.
The representative of the Lithuanian national team will start on September 6, Friday, and the opponents will be known on Wednesday.
Tuesday, September 3
1:00 p.m. Athletics. Oksana Dobrovolskaja (F11 – discus throw). The final
September 4, Wednesday
11:05 a.m. Athletics. Andrius Skuja (F46 class – shot put). The final
1:02 p.m. Athletics. Eivydė Vainauskaitė (F46 class – shot put). The final
September 5, Thursday
11:10 a.m. Swimming. Edgaras Mataks (SB11 class – 100m breaststroke). Selection
7:01 p.m. Swimming. Edgaras Mataks (SB11 class – 100m breaststroke). The final
Friday, September 6
11:00 a.m. Judo wrestling. Osvaldas Bareikis (J2 class – weight category up to 73 kg). Selection
5:00 p.m. Judo wrestling. Osvaldas Bareikis (J2 class – weight category up to 73 kg). Finals
12:50 p.m. Athletics. Donatas Dundzys (F37 class – discus throw). The final
Saturday, September 7
10:57 a.m. Swimming. Gabrielė Čepavičiūtė (S6 class – 100m backstroke). Selection
6:53 p.m. Swimming. Gabrielė Čepavičiūtė (S6 class – 100m backstroke). The final
September 8, Sunday
10:30 a.m. Athletics. Aušra Garunkšnytė (T12 class – marathon).
2024-09-02 16:01:28