Pulling For Lithuania -- Rowers From Newly Independent Nation Glad To Shed Soviet Identity

For Lithuanian rowers here for Saturday's big races, life without Uncle Vasya is wonderful.

"Uncle Vasya" was the nickname Lithuanians gave to KGB agents who accompanied Soviet-bloc athletes on the road to make sure they didn't defect and otherwise keep an eye on them. With Lithuania now independent, there is no Uncle Vasya (pronounced "Vahs-ya) in the traveling party.

"Now you can relax and feel natural rather than be tense and wonder if your behavior is being observed," Inga Liaukontye said through an interpreter.

Soviets used to send more than one official on trips and it was a guessing game to try to figure out which one was with the KGB, said Eugenijus Levickas, president of the nation's rowing federation.

"We always used to wonder, which one was `the guy,' " he said.

The Lithuanian men's and women's crews and those from Cambridge University in England will compete with the University of Washington crews for Windermere Cup championships in 2,000-meter (1.24 miles) races through Montlake Cut. The races will highlight a 14-race program. The women's race will begin at 11:16 a.m. and the men's race at 11:30.

The Lithuanian rowers range from 18 to 22 years old, the age span of Husky rowers. Two years ago, China showed up with its superior Olympic crews and the races became mismatches. This year, the only decided underdog will be Cambridge in the men's race because the English university sent its lightweight eight.

Crew races have been part of the Opening Day of yachting-season festivities for years, but the event was upgraded to an international competition in 1987.

One reason the Lithuanian crew was invited, said Jeanne Grainger, the sponsor's director of communication, was the eagerness of the Lithuanian community in Seattle to help with translation and entertainment. Members of that community showed up at Sea-Tac Inter

LITHUANIANS PROUD OF NEW IDENTITY

national Airport on Sunday carrying the green, red and yellow Lithuanian flag. One athlete, Virginija Alisaukaite, called it the highlight of the week.

For others, the big thrill was meeting Lithuanian basketball hero Sarunas Marciulionis, now a member of the Golden State Warriors, at a dinner Monday night. The rowers also went to the Seattle Coliseum Tuesday night and cheered wildly for Marciulionis during the Warriors' loss to the Sonics.

"I could not hear them cheering during the game," Marciulionis said, "but I could see them waving the flag up there."

Like these rowers, Marciulionis not long ago was known as a Soviet athlete. Now he has become a leader in organizing a Lithuanian Olympic basketball team. His enthusiasm over the new situation mirrors that of the rowers.

"We've always been anonymous in the past," Asta Ruzieniute said. "We feel a great deal of pride in being identified as Lithuania and being invited to this meet."

Another homeland athlete the Lithuanians have met is Husky rower Kestes Sereiva, 20, who is in his second quarter of studies at the UW and is a member of the junior-varsity crew.

Two years ago, Sereiva was hiding from Soviet troops who wanted to draft him into the military.

"I would live at friends' houses," he said. "After almost a year of hiding, I enrolled at the university (in the capital of Vilnius). There was a new law that students couldn't be drafted. Still, it wasn't safe to be walking in the streets. The Russians (Soviets) were riding in military trucks and they would see a young guy walking and they would just grab him. They would take him to a drafting center and investigate his papers. Usually, those guys got beat up by Russian soldiers."

The continued presence of Soviet soldiers in Lithuania - a nation of 3.7 million and less than one-third the size of Washington - remains a major point of tension.

Sereiva can thank a videocassette recorder for the chance to study in the United States. About four years ago his parents went to Chicago to visit one of his uncles, and returned home with a VCR. Last year, when Sereiva and his brother wanted to come to the United States, the family sold the VCR to pay for air fare.

The brother returned to Lithuania and his girlfriend in December, but Sereiva remained. In Chicago he became friends with a commercial photographer named Leslie Hicks, who had ties to USC. Hicks called there on Sereiva's behalf to inquire about the rowing program, and was steered to the UW, where crew is a major sport.

Sereiva has served as a go-between for Husky rowers and the Lithuanians. Inevitably, a Husky crewmate is sure to ask him about the Lithuanians' craving for bananas - yellow gold to the Lithuanians.

Back home, bananas are too expensive, not to mention inferior, the rowers explained.

"The bananas we get tend to be green," one said. "These are much better."

Joked another: "We're eating like monkeys."