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Shizuoka tankers make waves in Marpi
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Posted on Dec 28 2005
While the Saipan Swim Club was churning the waters of the Hagatna Pool in Guam, a team of three coaches and eight swimmers of the Shizuoka Prefecture Swim Team was doing the same at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi.
After arriving on Saipan in the wee hours of Christmas Day, the Japanese delegation made their way to their temporary home at the Marianas Resort and Spa before setting up shop in the morning.
Although the individual swimmers change with each trip, the team has been coming to Saipan every December for the past five years. Yesterday, head coach Masaharu Otsuka had the team working out in the rain well before sunrise, but the swimmers were too busy doing laps to worry about the weather.
Otsuka said that his swimmers are happy to be on Saipan, and that the rain was much better than the snow that is currently falling in Shizuoka Prefecture. While the team gets to make use of the outdoor facilities in Japan during the summer, they are limited to indoor facilities with only 25m lanes in the winter back home.
There were a couple of reasons why he brought the team of junior high and high school students to Saipan, and Otsuka said that another one was to expose his athletes to training in other countries.
“I want my swimmers to start to experience swimming internationally when they’re young so they have the opportunity to compete at the highest level in the future,” he said.
Their rigorous routine gives them little time for a vacation in paradise, as they get started at 5:30am for an hour and a half of workout in the morning. From there, the Shizuoka team takes a three-hour break before returning to the Marpi tank for a 10am-12pm workout. The group then returns to the Marianas Resort and Spa for some much needed nourishment, but they return for their longest workout of the day when they hit the blue from 3:30pm to 6pm.
While they were spared the evening round of laps last night, the swimmers will have plenty of time to flex their fins before they depart tomorrow for Japan.
