President congratulates Lithuanian medalists of European Games

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has sent letters of gratitude to the country`s seven medal winning athletes as well as their coaches and doctors, who participated in the inaugural European Games held between June 12 and 28 in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, ELTA, Lithuanian National News Agency says.

With a tally of two gold, one silver and four bronze medals, Lithuania ranked 24th in the overall medal table of the Games.

The gold medals came from Henrikas Zustautas (canoe sprint) and Andrius Sidlauskas (swimming) won Lithuania`s only silver. Kestutis Navickas (badminton), Radvilas Matukas and Ruta Aksionova (sambo), Monika Povilaityte and Ieva Dumbauskaite (beach volleyball) grabbed bronze medals.

The European Games were surely a mega event hosting 6,000 athletes from 50 nations. These Games are the equivalent of the Olympic Games for the European nations.

Athletes competed in 20 sporting events, 16 of which were Olympic disciplines and 12 used the Games as an Olympic qualifier for Rio 2016.

Baku was awarded the Games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.