Yanai siblings, Tammy reset records anew

  Siblings Kaito and Ryuto Yanai and Miku Tammy returned to the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool for the All Island Invitational 2 last Saturday and crushed more CNMI age group records.

Kaito Yanai, who reset his 200m breaststroke record in the boys 11 to 12 in the Invitational 1 last month after clocking in at 2:51.79, this time broke two marks in his age group. He timed in at 36.78 seconds in the 50m breaststroke to shatter the 19-year-old record of Jacoby Winkfield (37.25 seconds/Feb. 27, 1993).

The older Yanai then surpassed another old record, submitting 1:15.51 in the 100m backstroke race to eclipse the 1:16.35 Joshua Taitano made on May 6, 1994. With his two record-breaking swims, Kaito Yanai now owns four records in the boys 11 to 12 age group. The Tsunami Saipan swimmer also holds the CNMI age group mark in the 100m breaststroke after clocking in at 1:19.26 on Dec. 3, 2011.

Duplicating Kaito Yanai’s feat in last weekend’s tournament was Tammy, who set new records in the girls 9 to 10’s 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke. Tammy’s 37.64 seconds in the 50m butterfly bested the 37.84 Amanda Johnson of Saipan Swim Club posted on March 28, 2002. Then in the 50m backstroke, the Tsunami Saipan swimmer logged 39.46 seconds, .31 of a second faster than previous record-holder Myana Welch (39.67 seconds/May 5, 2000).

After breaking into the CNMI record books in December last year (400m freestyle/5:43.69), Tammy now has four age group marks to her credit. Her second record was made last month when she tallied 11:49.95 in the 800m freestyle swim and erased the 10-year mark of Johnson (12:22.78/April 28, 2002).

Meanwhile, Ryuto Yanai added another record to his list after completing the 50m butterfly event in 36.48 seconds. Ryuto Yanai’s time crushed the 37.36 Lukas Kang submitted on October 15, 2011.

The 8-year-old swimmer’s number of records in his age group is now pegged at five. He broke the U8 100m butterfly mark last month after clocking in at 1:22.17, while his three other records, 50m freestyle (33.85 seconds),100m freestyle (1:16.11), and 200m freestyle (2:45.35), were posted late last year.

Ryuto Yanai needs to make only one more mark to have the most records in his age group. Kang owns six records in the boys U8 division and he can no longer add more, as he is now competing in the 9 to 10 age group.