Kensuke 21st out of 103 in Tokyo meet

Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan’s Kensuke Kimura almost made it into the Top 20 of his age group in last weekend’s 2008 Tokyo Junior Sprint Swim Meet, finishing 21st out of 103 in the competition held at the Tatsumi International Swimming Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

Kimura gave a good account of himself swimming against the world’s best 11-year-olds though, finishing the 50m breaststroke in 40.37, a lifetime best.

According to his coach and father, Hiro Kimura, swimmers who were faster than 38.87 advanced to the final eight and the younger Kimura failed to advance by a mere 1.5 seconds.

“It was so tough a fight that the Top 10 swimmers were separated by less than a second. The final seeding places changed for five or six swimmers by less than 0.5 seconds. It was a very high-level competition. I had great experience with many fast swimmers of my same age there,” said Kensuke.

While the Kimuras would’ve wanted a finals stint for Kensuke, gaining experience and improving his times were still good enough.

“Of course, he got a lifetime best time, but it wasn’t good enough. For an inexperienced or young swimmer, it is so easy to get LTB. Whenever they swim, they can get it. But it is so hard for an experienced swimmer like Kensuke to get a LTB. His LTB for this event is very respectable and we are proud of him,” said Hiro.

The elder Kimura, the head coach of Tsunami Saipan, added their Tokyo trip last weekend was just the beginning and hopes to bring more of his swimmers to off-island events.

“Sending swimmers to such a meet, and making them compete will improve CNMI swimming. I want to take more young swimmers, not only Kensuke, and participate in this meet next year again.”

In all a total of 96 teams and 3,404 swimmers participated in the 2008 Tokyo Junior Sprint Swim Meet.

Before the competition, Kensuke practiced at the Japan National Youth Olympic Center and also did so a day before coming back to the CNMI last Monday. The Kimuras returned to Saipan from their Tokyo trip last Tuesday.

In other news, Tsunami Saipan announced that slots for the April session for beginner Red Cross lessons at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan have all been filed up. The next session of beginner swim lessons is set for the summer.