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10 Tsunami Saipan swimmers off to Palau
Tsunami Saipan swimmers pose for a photo during a break in their training session at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan. The 10 swimmers are in Palau to compete in the Inaugural Micronesian Swimming Championships. (Contributed Photo)
Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan will have 10 members competing in the Inaugural Micronesian Swimming Championships in Palau.
Tsunami Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura said Nelson Batallones, Joseph Zhang, Juhn Tenorio, Aika Watanabe, Isaiah Aleksenko, Hans Xu, Kean Pajarillaga, Ashley Dangol, and Shoko Litulumar will be participating in the April 4 to 7 event that will be held at the National Swimming Pool in Koror. The team left for Palau yesterday for the four-day meet that will also feature swimmers from Palau, Guam, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The 10 Tsunami Saipan swimmers have been training at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan since early this year to prepare for the tournament in Palau and Kimura has set high expectations for the club’s members.
“They have to swim for gold. The future division swimmers must aim to get gold medals in all their events,” said Kimura, who was talking of Aleksenko, Xu, Pajarillaga, Dangol, and Litulumar.
The five other members (stars division) are pressed to get at least one gold medal or rule their favorite event.
In the Micronesian Swimming Championships, the stars division is for swimmers in the 13 and over age group, while the futures pool is for 12 and under. Preliminary and finals races will be held during the competition and the Top 3 finishers in each event will receive medals.
Day 1 of the inaugural tournament will have the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay, 800m freestyle, 100m individual medley, 50m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 100m freestyle, and 4x50m mixed medley relay. For the second day, swimmers will race in the 4x100m mixed medley relay, 400m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 200m backstroke, 10m butterfly, 400m IM, and 200m freestyle. On Day 3, participants will compete in the 4x50m mixed freestyle relay, 1,500m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, 200m IM, 50m freestyle, and the pineapple relay (8x25m free for all), while the open water swim (5K and 1K) is set in the final day.
