Rezne upbeat on two off-island tourneys

Micronesian Games multiple-medalist Rezne Wong is back on island, but would not stay here for long, as he will be competing in two off-island tournaments this summer.

First up for the University of Hawaii-Manoa swimmer is the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China. The world championship will run from July 16 to 31 at the Oriental Sports Center, giving him less than two weeks to train with his mother club—the Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan—in preparation for the Shanghai meet.

“I will be on Saipan for only 10 days. I will train with Tsunami Saipan for a few days, but I already had training sessions back in Hawaii under my coach’s program,” said Wong, who was scheduled to arrive on Saipan yesterday.

Wong will leave for China on July 21 and will be joined by two Northern Marianas Swimming Federation officials and Saipan Swim Club’s Grace Kimball and Victoria Chentsova. The two-time NMASA Male Athlete of the Year awardee will compete in the 200m individual medley and 200m breaststroke events in the world championships.

“I just want to drop decent times and swim all out. It’s been hard this year for me with school and swimming, and I will be pleased with just small improvements. Shanghai will be pretty different. It will be like going back five to 10 years due to the banning of the technical, full body polyurethane suits. In other words, less world records and slower swims,” the Marianas High School graduate said.

“But as for me, I have improved my times this year without a fast suit, so my confidence is higher whenever I race. I also want to race and make the U.S. national cut for the 200m breaststroke, which is at 2:23.29, and my personal best is at 2:24.94. The 200 IM is also just more than three seconds away, (2:08.59) and my personal best is at 2:11.89. When I finish each race I will make sure that I gave it my all, and that, is the feeling ever true swimmer should have,” he added.

After the tournament in Shanghai, Wong will return to Saipan, but will only stay here for five days, as he will head next to Shenzhen for the 2011 Summer Universiade or FISU’s World University Games. The FISU (International University Sports Federation) event will run from Aug. 12 to 23 and Wong, fellow athlete Matt Mancao, and NMASA president Michael White are leaving Saipan on Aug. 5.

Wong is also entered in the 200m IM and 200m breaststroke races in Shenzhen.

“The tournament in Shenzhen includes the top two swimmers of every country who are in college or university, so not as fast as the world championships but definitely very competitive,” Wong said.