The 70 oji Australijos Lietuvių Sporto Šventė represented a major milestone for the Australian Lithuanian community. The 2022 Sporto Šventė represents an incredible milestone, 70 years of Australian Lithuanians competing to honour their shared cultural history and friendships. Incredibly, after beginning in 1950, the Sporto Šventė had been held for 69 consecutive years up to 2019 after which the COVID pandemic prevented a festival for two consecutive years. Despite the hiatus, SLSK Kovas as the hosts of this event are extremely proud that over 150 participants coming from the ALFAS sports clubs, Adelaide VYTIS, Brisbane BALTIJA, Melbourne VARPAS and Sydney KOVAS to Sydney to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Sporto Šventė.
The Sporto Šventė was held in Sydney from 27 to 31 December, running in conjunction with 31st Australijos Lietuvių Dienų (ALD) festival. Our Opening Ceremony attracted over 170 spectators who witnessed the teams march behind their flags, the taking of the Sports Person’s Pledge, the awarding of ALFAS Life Memberships to Saulius Balnionis (Melbourne Varpas) and Peter Gustafson (Sydney Kovas) before a stirring speech from the Hon. Lithuanian Ambassador to Australia, Darius Degutis, who heartily praised the sports people for having so many participants at the Šventė and especially to have so many young children who would participate and learn and grow their connection with their Lithuanian heritage.
Our 150 participants played in a range of sporting events including Men’s, Women’s, Mixed, Under 16’s and Under 10’s basketball, Mixed Volleyball, Golf, Tennis, Table Tennis, Billiards, Darts, Junior Swimming and for the first time ever, Nordic Walking. Importantly, of the 150 sports people who participated at Šventė, there were over 40 children aged from 5 to 16 years who played Under 10 or Under 16 basketball, or swam at the Junior Swimming events. Children were present from Brisbane Baltija, Melbourne Varpas and Sydney Kovas. Many of the slightly older children also played in the Mixed Basketball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Mixed Volleyball and Nordic Walking events. This next generation of youthful participants includes multiple children who are the 3rd or 4th generation Šventė participants from their families – meaning we now have great grandparents, grandparents, parents and children from the same families who have contributed to Šventė over that 70 year period. We believe this is a true testament to the cultural bonds strengthened by our shared Lithuanian heritage and our love of sport.
The sporting competitions themselves were extremely close in most cases. In the Men’s Basketball, Melbourne Varpas 1, narrowly defeated Sydney Kovas Gold to win the championship in a high quality match with both teams demonstrating great shooting and passing skills, Benas Norvilas (Varpas) and Titas Putna (Kovas Gold) were both outstanding, with Benas’ speed and athleticism being the main difference between the teams. Melbourne Varpas 2 and Sydney Kovas Green took the minor placings, with both teams having a large number of younger players aged 16 to 20 years of age – future stars in waiting. The Women’s basketball saw Sydney Kovas defeat Melbourne Varpas in 1-off winner takes all game. With so much on the line, the Kovas women shot superbly from the 3 point line and won a competitive game. In the Mixed Basketball, Kovas White were champions but with several extremely close games between the 2 teams from Varpas and 2 teams from Kovas.
The Under 16’s basketball was perhaps the tightest competition of all, with three Sydney Kovas teams playing and each game was won by less than 6 points, with 2 games by 1 point only, seeing the Kovas White team prevail as Champions.
The Under 10’s basketball was run as a fun competition, with 4 games between the 2 teams over the Šventė. Each game the teams were changed slightly to allow kids to play with some new faces and make new friends. The games were played in a great spirit with many of the kids playing their first ever games of basketball and the slightly older kids making sure to share the ball around with their younger teammates.
Mixed Volleyball saw three teams, two Kovas and one Varpas team participate over 3 days. In the end Varpas and Kovas Gold were tied, but Varpas were awarded the Championship on a count back. Tennis saw Sydney Kovas’ Chantel Bann come through as the Singles champion. Table Tennis was hotly contested, with one of the Kovas juniors, Julian Morris beat all comers to be the Champion player.
Golf saw a great turnout at the Massey Park course, with Arunas Skimbarauskas (Varpas) and Jura Skimbarauskas (Varpas) winning the Men’s and Women’s Stableford competitions respectively. The Teams event saw a tie, with the pairings of Justin Noble (Kovas) and Angela Kristens (Varpas) tied with Michael Liubinskas (Kovas) and Arunas Skimbarauskas (Varpas).
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In the Darts, a large turn out saw some tight matches, but eventually the pairing of Alfonsas Stoinis (Kovas) and Saulius Balnionis (Varpas) were the overall winners. Billiards also saw a good turn out and Adelaide Vytis’ Glenn Domeika continued his good form from past Sporto Šventė to be crowned the singles champion. In the pairs event, Glenn backed up with Kovas’ Chantell Bann to be the champion team.
The Nordic Walking unfortunately was affected by widespread heavy rainfall the night before and morning of the event, with many people withdrawing at the last minute. Nonetheless, 6 hardy souls from Kovas and Varpas awoke early and braved the clearing rain to complete the picturesque 5km course featuring the Woronora River and surrounding homes and bushland in a little over 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Junior swimming was an absolute hit, with a full program of events in the Under 10 and Under 16 age groups. In under 10’s Arabella Ambrakaityte (Brisbane Baltija) won the 25m freestyle and 25m backstroke, Kayley Gustafson (Kovas) won the 25m breaststroke and Tomas Gustafson (Kovas) the Butterfly (Tomas also finished 2nd in the three other events). The Under 16’s 50 metre freestyle and butterfly were won by Natas Bieri (Kovas) and the 50 metre back stroke and breast stroke by Julian Morris (Kovas).
The finale of the 70th Sporto Šventė was the Men’s Basketball Rinktinė game, with the following athletes chosen by the coaches to represent the Australian Lithuanians – V.Andriejunas (Kovas), L.Arnautovic (Kovas), N.Balnionis (Varpas), D.Campbell (Varpas), M.Kaspariunas (Varpas), M.Krasnadamskis (Varpas), J.Morkus (Kovas), B.Norvilas (Varpas), T.Putna (Kovas), O.Tomkus (Kovas); A.Gustafson (Kovas) - coach. The Australian Lithuanian’s played a local Division 1 Men’s team, Heat Check, who were winner’s of the local Winter Division 1 Men’s competition at Menai. The game was extremely competitive with the Lithuanian’s taking some time to gel together as a team to eventually build a lead to win the match in front of a large crowd of over 200 people.
Achieving our 70 year anniversary may not have occurred without two significant contributors. Kovas wish to recognise Leonas Baltrunas and Antanas Laukaitis for their substantial commitments to establishing the Sporto Šventė on the Australian Lithuanian calender. Without their leadership and determination, the Sporto Šventė may never have existed and flourished to achieve its Platinum Jubilee. We similarly thank the many contributors past and present across the sports clubs and within ALFAS who have supported and toiled to make the Sporto Šventė successful for 70 years.
The Kovas Committee thanks its special helpers for their assistance in running some of the sporting competitions for us, Michael Liubinskas (golf), Rasa Morris (swimming) and FONDAS for their generous grant that underpins the costs of running Šventė. We received so many generous, and heartfelt messages of thanks and support for the event, that it makes the hard work very rewarding – to all of you we say thank you and we hope to see you at the 71st Sporto Šventė being hosted by Melbourne Varpas at Wagga Wagga in early November 2023.
A final note, for anyone unable to attend, you can see a large collection of photos at the 70th Sporto Šventė Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/sportosvente2022/
Sporto Svente 2022 - Image Gallery
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Open to all sports people with Lithuanian Heritage