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5 Tsunami Saipan bets to compete in Guam
From left, Juhn Tenorio, Isaiah Aleksenko, Nelson Batallones, and Kana Suzuki of Tsunami Saipan pose for a photo during a break in their training session at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool. The four Tsunami Saipan swimmers leave Saipan today to join Angel De Jesus in Guam for a weekend meet. (Contributed Photo)
The club’s senior member Angel De Jesus, who is already in Guam, will lead Tsunami Saipan’s small delegation and will be joined by young swimmers Kana Suzuki, Isaiah Aleksenko, Juhn Tenorio, and Nelson Batallones.
De Jesus will race in eight events in the girls 15 to 16 age group—the 50m, 100m, 200m, and 400m freestyle, 50m and 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly, and 200m individual medley. Tenorio and Batallones also had eight events each with the former joining the boys 9 to 10’s 50m, 100m, and 200m freestyle, 50m, 100, and 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, and 200m IM. In the boys 11 to 12 age group, Batallones will swim in the 50m, 100m, 200m, and 400m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 50m and 100m backstroke, and 200m IM.
The two other members of the team will have six events apiece. Aleksenko and Suzuki are both entered in the U8 division’s 50m, 100, and 200m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 50m backstroke, and 50m butterfly races.
Tsunami Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura said they set a high goal for the five swimmers competing in the Guam meet.
“For this meet, we are targeting high point awards in each age group. It means everyone should win medals,” Kimura said.
The coach said Suzuki, Aleksenko, Tenorio and De Jesus are aiming for the first place finish in the high-point race in their respective age groups, while Batallones is looking at making it to the Top 3.
“They are also targeting at updating their personal best times. I believe they can do it,” Kimura said.
Twenty events are scheduled in the Saturday and Sunday competition with 7 of them to take place in the afternoon, starting at 4:45pm. The Sunday competition will have two sessions with the morning session holding 7 more events, beginning at 8:15am and the remaining 6 slated in the afternoon, starting at 2:15pm.
This weekend’s meet will be Aleksenko and Suzuki’s second straight appearance in the year-ending tournament in Guam as they were also part of Tsunami Saipan’s eight-swimmer team last year, joining Hans Xu, Anthony Deleon Guerrero-Camacho, Arman Rechucher, Nanaka Watanabe, Natsuki Nagata, and Ashley Dangol in the 2013-2014 GSF Short Course Championships.
