Impressive Baltic Grappling Championship Storms Through Jonava

On April 26, the traditional Baltic Grappling Championship took place at the Jonava Sports Arena. This year, the event gathered an impressive 195 athletes from 22 clubs representing Lithuania, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Kyrgyzstan, and Brazil.

To honor the memory of the late Pope Francis, the Lithuanian Government declared a national day of mourning. At the beginning of the event, a minute of silence was observed in tribute to the Pope.

Among the clubs, the grappling wrestlers from the Vilnius-based “Pankratos” team were unbeatable. In the gi (kimono) discipline, champions included Miglė Nemanytė (69 kg), Sandra Bacevičiūtė (+77 kg), Konstantinas Mokšinas (64 kg), and Janis Kogutics (Latvia, +100 kg).

In the no-gi discipline, the winners were: Vytautė Navickaitė (53 kg), Aurėja Sodaitytė (61 kg), Miglė Nemanytė (59 kg), Sandra Bacevičiūtė (+77 kg), Konstantinas Mokšinas (64 kg), Justas Labanauskas (72 kg), Jokūbas Paičius (80 kg), and Tomas Smirnovas (+100 kg).

President of the International Grappling Federation, Kęstutis Smirnovas, noted that "Over the past decade, the Baltic Grappling Championships have grown from a small regional tournament into a high-level international event attracting fighters from around the world."

"While I don’t want to diminish the work we did in the early years, it’s sometimes astonishing to see how far we’ve come. The fact that we dominate the Baltic region is a huge acknowledgment for everyone who contributed over the past decade," said K. Smirnovas.

In the absolute women’s category, the champion was Miglė Nemanytė, followed by Lijana Lipinskaitė in second place and Agute Klints from Latvia in third. In the men’s absolute category, Tomas Smirnovas won gold, Jokūbas Paičius took silver, and Cassiano Alves from Brazil earned bronze.

"Tomas Smirnovas and Miglė Nemanytė are outstanding examples for our sports community—they show that determination, professionalism, and consistent hard work yield exceptional results on the international stage," said K. Smirnovas.

Speaking about the venue, K. Smirnovas highlighted Jonava as a special city for the grappling community: "Jonava has developed excellent infrastructure for such tournaments—we feel not only the strength of the organizing team here but also great support from the local community."

The Lithuanian Grappling Federation and the sports club "Faiteris" extend their sincere thanks for cooperation and support to: Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, Member of Parliament Eugenijus Sabutis, Mayor of Jonava District Municipality Mindaugas Sinkevičius and Deputy Mayor Birutė Gailienė, as well as Director of the Jonava Sports Center Jūratė Stanislovaitienė,” expressed the organization’s president.

Aukštyn