Coach Hiro proud of former ward Aasish

A young Aasish Dangol shares a light moment in 2019 at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan pool with Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach Hiroyuki Kimura. The next day, the Dangols left for California.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach Hiroyuki Kimura congratulated his former swimmer, Aasish Dangol, for making it to the USA Junior Rankings recently.

He said Dangol started swimming when he was just 4 years old because his older sister, Ashley, was already swimming with Tsunami Saipan.

From early on, Dangol showed some signs of big things to come.

“Aasish progressed steadily. He went to the Guam Swimming Championships the first time when he was 7 years old. He won the championship in the boys 8-and-under division though he was still 7 years old,” said Kmiura.

Dangol then participated in Tokyo Junior Sprint for first time when he was 8 years old and amazingly won the gold medal of 50m butterfly.

A few months later, the swimming prodigy broke the CNMI age group record in the same event in the Saipan International Meet.

His development in the sport, however, came to a crashing halt a year later when the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi was closed.

“He lost his chance to break other CNMI record unfortunately because we could not hold swim meets here anymore,” said Kimura.

Dangol continued to train sans an official pool and despite the handicap, he returned to the Tokyo Junior Sprint and took home the bronze medal of the 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley.

“When Aasish was 10, his family moved to the mainland in California. Before they left, I contacted Mr. Jesus Salcedo, head coach of Albany Armada Aquatics and told him that the Dangols are moving there and asked him to accept them in his swim club.”

The siblings went on to swim for Salcedo’s Albany Armada Aquatics and only worked harder, culminating in Aasish’s USA Junior Rankings.

“Their wonderful performance has made me so proud of them. Ashley and Aasish promised me to keep swimming in the U.S. mainland before they left and they did just that. Of course, Aasish had big potential and he is a very hard worker. I’m such a lucky coach to have mentored them,” said Kimura.

As previously reported, Aasish Dangol was previously ranked No. 8 in the 12-and-under age group before turning 13 a few months ago.

He received the ranking after he finished eighth in the SCY 400m individual medley of the 2021 PC AAA Intrasquad Distance Day with a time of 4:26:36.