Tsunami Swim Circuit Series resumes

 The second leg of the Tsunami Swim Circuit Series will be held today at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi with host Tsunami Saipan aiming to break more CNMI records.

The first of the four-leg competition took place last Saturday with Tsunami Saipan’s Lukas Kang’ setting a new Commonwealth’s record in the 100m backstroke race in the boys U8 division (1:23.74) and Ryuto Yanai doing the same in the 100m freestyle (1:16.11) and 50m freestyle (33.85 seconds).

“If there’s only one big meet, some swimmers may miss it. So Tsunami Saipan decided to hold these series of competitions to give swimmers several chances of improving their times and eventually making CNMI records,” Tsunami Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura said.

“The four legs also save us money, time, and labor,” Kimura added.

The second leg of the swim circuit will start at 3:30pm with Tsunami Saipan holding 200m events. Next up will be the 100m races, beginning at 3:40, while the 50m sprints will start at 4:30pm. Warm-ups will run from 2:30 to 3:30pm.

The swim circuit is not only for Tsunami Saipan swimmers, but also for Saipan Swim Club bets. SSC fielded a couple of swimmers in last week’s first leg.

“We would like to open our doors to all swimmers and then our target is to have CNMI records in every meet. We have a lot of swimmers who are getting close to CNMI marks,” Kimura said.

One of them is Tsunami Saipan’s Angel Marie Tan, who according to Kimura is just 0.8 of a second behind the 50m backstroke mark (11 to 12 age group), .02 of a second in the 100m breaststroke, 0.7 of a second in the 100m butterfly, two seconds in the 200m backstroke, and four seconds in the 200m individual medley.

“Shigeki Tenorio, Kensuke Kimura, Kaito Yanai, Hiroto Yanai, Lukas Kang, Ryuto Yanai, Angel De Jesus, and Miku Tammy also have strong chances in breaking the CNMI records in the series,” Kimura said.

Kimura also has high hopes on Daime Rivera, who is trying to earn a ticket to the 2011 Guam Championship at the end of this year.

“Daime is getting closer to a BB time for breaststroke. If Daime marks a BB time, she will be selected for the Tsunami Saipan team that will participate in the Guam Championship. She will complete Tsunami’s female relay team in the Guam meet. It is the one of our dreams to have a female relay team in Guam,” Kimura said.

After today’s competition, Tsunami Saipan will have the last two legs of the Northern Marianas Swimming Federation-sanctioned event on Dec. 3 and 10.