Previous Story
Tsunami Saipan touts promising swimmers
Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan’s up-and-coming members pose for a photo during a break in their training session at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool last week. (Contributed Photo)
Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura believes the future is bright for his club as they have several promising swimmers in their stable.
Kimura mentioned 12 up-and-coming Tsunami Saipan swimmers who are capable of showing impressive performance in local and off-island meets. The list includes Elin Kim, Julio Monserrat, Sari and Shuman Barman, Nagisa Litulumar, Fiona and Cassie Regan, Arwen Bartolata, Rafael and Raven Pascual, Sakura Hara, and Justin Ma. These swimmers have achieved or are closed to getting the standard times that Tsunami Saipan set for them to compete in various tournaments.
“We set higher standard times that Tsunami Saipan should meet. If a swimmer wants to go to a Guam meet, she or he has to get more than three BB times in the age group. For the Japan meets, our qualifying time is AA,” Kimura said.
“We always encourage our swimmers to think about the next level once they achieved their earlier goal (time standard),” the club’s head coach added.
Kimura also said that every season, they are focused on bringing more Tsunami Saipan swimmers to the Guam meet.
“We try our best to train these young swimmers so we can send many of them to Guam,” the Tsunami Saipan official said.
Among the club’s young members, Kimura made special mention of four—the Barmans, Fiona Regan, and Ma—who are showing significant improvements.
“The siblings are so talented. Shuman will be a rising star in this season or next. His younger brother Sari has a strong potential,” Kimura said.
“Fiona has already earned BB time and also has few events with very close to BB times. I can say Fiona has the best chance to make it to the Guam tournament among our young swimmers,” Kimura said.
As for Ma, Kimura is impressed with the beginner.
“Justin is a newcomer, but his swimming skills are very good. Justin still belongs to our beginner class but I’m sure he will be promoted to advanced class soon,” the Tsunami Saipan head coach said.
