Breaking with tears: the dismembered couple who had broken the rebound virus had to make their own decision

The ranks of the participants were confused by the positive COVID-19 test of one of the Lithuanian athletes.

Volleyball, which does not want to publicize its name, does not feel any signs of illness, so on the eve of the tournament it even asked for a re-examination, questioning the results of the first test. However, a second sample confirmed the diagnosis.

Following this news, the other two tournament participants, sisters Gerda and Rugilė Grudzinskaitė, and several other networkers decided to isolate themselves.

They all trained together indoors last Saturday in preparation for the upcoming gym volleyball season.

Ieva Dumbauskaitė, who won the Lithuanian championship last month with G. Grudzinskaitė, found another partner during the day and started with Karole Virbickaitė in the square near the White Bridge on Friday. The latter had also lost her partner, as she intended to play with R. Grudzinskaitė.

A new duo in Group C’s first match in 35 minutes. 2: 0 (21:18, 21:19) beat the French Maeva Guignan and Marion Bernard.

In the second match, the Lithuanians after 46 min. The fight was also interrupted by the Swiss Kim Huber and Joelle Rohrer with a score of 2: 1 (18:21, 21:15, 15:11).

“We already knew about the situation yesterday morning, but the infected volleyball was still doing a re-examination because it was sacred convinced that a mistake had crept in here.

Together with Gerda they played in the living room, although for a short time, but in a closed space. That is why Gerda made the really wise decision not to risk the health of others. For my part, I contacted Gerda, but according to the current procedure in Lithuania, the contacts from the second round no longer need to be quarantined. Collar’s situation is exactly the same: she was in contact with Gerda’s sister, but she can play in the tournament. Otherwise there would be a chain reaction, everyone would have to shut down. ” Delphi I. Dumbauskaitė spoke.

“You should probably not be surprised here, it is normal that there are diseases in Lithuania. When the player received the answer, everything went according to the established order. First, the people who had contact were informed, among whom, as I understand it, were two more participants in the tournament. The number of teams decreased, but we obtained permission to merge the broken pairs. Now we have what we have, “added Darius Čerka, president of the Lithuanian Volleyball Federation (LTF).

Delphi As far as we know, the Lithuanians not only had problems with the positive test for COVID-19, the same reason deterred Italian volleyball players from appearing in the tournament.

D. Čerka stated that he could not specify whether the latter learned of his diagnosis in Italy or had already arrived in Lithuania and was awaiting permission from the National Center for Public Health to end the hotel isolation.

At the beginning of the week, the LTF expected to receive representatives from 18 countries in Vilnius, but due to strict security requirements and travel restrictions, far fewer arrived, from 8 countries.

Even after refusing to hold a qualifying competition and obtaining permission to fill the vacancies with the host teams, there were still gaps in the participant lists.

14 couples participate in the women’s competition, six of which are Lithuanian representatives. There are 13 duets in the men’s tournament, seven of them are Lithuanian. The winners and awardees will share 10,000. Euro bonuses will be announced on Sunday.

Delphi I. Dumbauskaitė, who was interviewed on Friday, made no secret that the forced divorce with G. Grudzinskaitė was not without tears. But other starting volleyball players said they hadn’t seen it.

– Have you tried to dissuade your partner from self-isolation that has confused all plans? – Delphi I asked. Dumbauskaitė

– No. Initially, we generally expected a call from the Ministry of Health to give specific instructions for quarantine. But apparently there are so many cases that they fail to notify everyone. Then we read for ourselves what the order is. Everything is written in black on white: if there has been contact in a closed room, a person must isolate himself.

No matter how much it hurt Gerdai, she realized she couldn’t play and I told her the exact same thing. Be that as it may, health comes first. If we don’t turn our heads, we will play together next year, there will be more tournaments. In addition, Gerda is looking forward to the European Youth U-22 Championship, which will be the last in this age group. I know how you want to get there. I told him to be happy, it is better to get infected now than before the European Championship.

– I’m probably still not happy.

– Sad, of course. For us, this tournament was really important, the first international start playing together. I too am sad, hurt. But I have more experience, so I react more calmly to those things. I know that Gerda supports me, and if I get any victory in this tournament I dedicate it to Gerda.

– Aren’t you afraid of getting infected while participating in this tournament?

– There are safety requirements, we follow the established procedure, distances. Clearly, there are always risks. But I think it is much smaller here than when I went to a Vilnius bar at night. If you want to be completely sure, you have to sit at home and order Barbora products.

– When was the last time you played with K. Virbickaitė?

– A long time ago, still in the Lithuanian Student Championship. We have not played together in international competitions. How are you? It is quite difficult because we are both players in the same position and both defenders tend to build barriers. Also, we both prefer to play on the right side. It is difficult at first, but we understand the situation, we try, we fight for each point, and how it will be, yes. I think the first game showed that even without playing our best volleyball we can win. Sometimes that is the most important thing.