5 Tsunami swimmers deliver medals

Five more Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan swimmers contributed to the visiting club’s the medal haul in late last month’s 2012 Guam Championship in Hagatna.

Delivering 16 additional medals for Tsunami Saipan were Angel Marie Tan, Angel De Jesus, Ryosei Toda, Takumi Sugie, and Kensuke Kimura. Miku Tammy and siblings Kaito and Ryuto Yanai had earlier handed Tsunami Saipan 16 gold and two silver medals besides winning the overall championships in their respective age groups.

Kimura placed only third overall in the boys 15 to 16 age group, but had four gold medals to his credit after topping the 200m and 400m individual medley races, 100m breaststroke, and 50m freestyle. He timed in at 2:20.43 and 5:09.63 in the 200m and 400m IM events, respectively, and submitted 27/71 seconds in the 50m freestyle race. Kimura’s 1:12.52 in the 100m breaststroke event moved him closer to breaking Rezne Wong’s four-year-old record (1:12.19/Feb. 2, 2008) in the boys 15 to 16 age group.

Tan competed in the much younger age group—13 to 14—and won gold medals in the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke events. She logged 1:26:17 in the 100m breaststroke, 41.45 in the 50m, and 3:06.79 in the 200m.

De Jesus was in the same age group as Tan’s and saved bronze medals in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle races. She tallied 36.51 seconds in the 50m butterfly, surpassing her seed time (36.78 seconds) and posted 33.43 seconds in the 50m freestyle event.

Toda was in the boys 11 to 12 division and collected one gold, one silver, and one bronze. His gold-medal winning time in the 200m breaststroke was 3:19.58, while he recorded 1:33.81 and 43.41 seconds in the 100m and 50m breaststroke events, respectively.

Takumi Sugie of the boys 13 to 14 age group also had one gold (50m backstroke) and silver (50m freestyle) to go with his two bronze (100m and 200m freestyle swims). He completed the 50m backstroke in 36.14 seconds, the 50m freestyle in 29.47 seconds, and the 100m freestyle in 1:04. 70. Then in the 200m freestyle, Sugie checked in at the 2:20.56 mark, eclipsing his seed time of 2:24.64.

Last month’s tournament in Guam was Tsunami Saipan’s final event for the 2011-2012 season. The club is then expected to hold its yearly recognition ceremony before starting a new season in August or September.