The Lithuanian Teqball Federation is a relatively new organisation, forming in September of this year, meaning they have had to move extra quickly in order to be represented at the International Federation of Teqball's (FITEQ) flagship competition.

Mauragas gave insidethegames an insight into the preparatory work required to enable its two representatives - Lukas Arlauskas and Mantas Makutunovičius in the men's doubles - to compete at the Gliwice Arena.

"Initially it was really difficult because we had a really tight time schedule to actually select the proper athletes that could compete, and also to make sure that they had all the equipment so they can be prepared, so it was challenging, but it was worthwhile to actually go for it and try to arrange everything," he said.

"We just received the 21 tables from FITEQ, but apart from that we were actually sponsoring everything ourselves, as we do believe in the idea of teqball that much, and the public funding will come eventually, but as of now we are spending our own money and actually trying to make sure that we participate at the highest level competition."

He expressed his gratitude to FITEQ for enabling Lithuania's appearance at the World Championships.

Mauragas is hopeful the country will be able to take part in more events in the future, including competing in the women's singles and women's and mixed doubles for the first time.

"I just want to thank FITEQ for giving us the opportunity," Mauragas commented.

"They invited us to participate and they helped with all the communication to make sure that the processes moved really fast, and we're really grateful for the opportunity to participate.

"At the moment, we did give one of the tables to one of our main women's football teams in Lithuania, a football club that actually competes in the Champions League, and there are a lot of really talented women out there in Lithuania that can compete almost at the same level as the current teams here,

"So we do believe that in the next years we will definitely bring more athletes, like mixed doubles, women's doubles and women's singles, so that's one of the ambitious aims that we have for the future."

FITEQ introduced separate men's and women's competitions for the first time at this year's World Championships, and Mauragas claimed teqball's growth is likely to continue in the coming years.

"Next year, they are also thinking of doing the European Tours around the whole of Europe, and it actually shows the increased popularity among European countries and also outside Europe," he continued.

"So even after the successful event that they did this year, I think even next year and the year after, the popularity of it is just going to grow tremendously, in my opinion."

Arlauskas and Makutunovičius finished fourth in Group B of the men's doubles competition, although they did record a maiden victory on this stage against Luxembourg's Alex Nunes and Achille Wozniak-Lemarie.

Mauragas believes teqball in Lithuania will benefit greatly from the experience.

"It was a massive, massive success for us," he said.

"Even though we lost against really strong opponents such as the United States, Russian Teqball Athletes and Portugal, and these are most likely going to be one of the main competitors going forward, we managed to win against Luxembourg.

"We're really proud of the guys that they managed to get one win, which will give some motivation for the upcoming generation of teqqers in Lithuania, and to actually try to get involved in the sport discipline and maybe even compete in the next years."

Competition has been held over four days at the Gliwice Arena for the World Championships, which will conclude tomorrow with the men's, women's and mixed doubles semi-finals and finals.