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Britain claim a piece of Lithuanian cake
Success-starved Britain rushed to claim a slice of Lithuanian teenager Ruta Meilutyte's gold medal glory on Tuesday after the swimmer's remarkable win in the 100m breaststroke.
Success-starved Britain rushed to claim a slice of Lithuanian teenager Ruta Meilutyte's gold medal glory on Tuesday after the swimmer's remarkable win in the 100m breaststroke.
Meilutyte, who became the youngest winner of the Olympic event at 15 years and 133 days, goes to school in England and trains at the same Plymouth facility as British poster-boy diver Tom Daley.
While Meilutyte is Lithuania's first Olympic swimming champion you could be forgiven for thinking the blonde schoolkid is British given the reaction to Monday's 100m breastroke win over American world champion Rebecca Soni.
Jon Rudd, her coach at Plymouth Leander swimming club, claimed Meilutyte should be regarded as "our adopted Brit."
"She goes to a British school, swims for a British club and has a British coach, so she is a great British interest story," Rudd told The Daily Telegraph. "We should feel really proud of her: she is a product of our nation's work."
Meilutyte's mother died after being hit by a car when Ruta was four years old and she came to England in 2010 with her father and established their new home in Plymouth where she joined the local swimming club.
She could barely speak after her victory, looking stunned as she straddled the lane rope trying to take it all in.
Now she owns the fastest time of the year (1:05.21) and her future is boundless.
