Tsunami Saipan swimmers shatter 5 records

Tsunami Saipan swimmers marked last Saturday’s All Island Invitational 1 with record-breaking times.

Setting CNMI age group records in the first of three-part series of small swim meets Tsunami Saipan is hosting at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi are Ryuto Yanai, Lukas Kang, Miku Tammy, Kaito Yanai, and Kensuke Kimura.

Ryuto Yanai raced in the boys U18 100m butterfly and submitted 1:22.17 to eclipse the 1:22.63 Kang recorded on Nov. 19, 2011. With the new record in the 100m butterfly, the younger Yanai now owns four CNMI age group marks in the boys U8. His three other records are in the 50m freestyle (33.65 seconds/Dec. 10, 2011), 100m freestyle (1:16.11/Nov. 12, 2011), and 200m freestyle (2:45.35/Dec. 10, 2011).

Kang, who is still credited for the most records in the boys U8 with his seven, moved up to the 9 to 10 age group this year and continue to crush swim marks. He logged 1:21.96 seconds in the 100m backstroke, about four seconds faster than the previous record (1:25.57) Kento Akimaru of Saipan Swim Club posted on Oct. 15, 2011.

Tammy is in the same 9 to 10 age group and notched her second record in the division after clocking in at 11:49.95 in the 800m freestyle swim. Her time surpassed the over 10-year mark of SSC’s Amanda Johnson (12:22.78/April 28, 2011).

Tammy first made it to the CNMI swim record books last month when she timed in at 5:43.69 in the 400m freestyle, erasing the 5:47.72 Johnson submitted on April 26, 2002.

In the boys 11 to 12, Kaito Yanai reset his own record, tallying 2:51.79 in the 200m breaststroke, more than two seconds faster than his previous mark of 2:54.04 (Feb. 5, 2011). The 12-year-old swimmer has two records in his age group with the other one coming from the 100m breaststroke (1:19.26/Dec. 3, 2011).

Kimura, who climbed up to a new age group late last month, competing in the boys 15 to 16 division, completed the 800m freestyle in 9:12.98, chopping off about four seconds from the time of former record holder and teammate Kai Staal (9:16.36/April 10, 2010). The 15-year-old Kimura now has two marks in his age group with the first one recorded just last month (Dec. 3) when he clocked in at 2:20.05 in the 200m backstroke event of the Tsunami Swim Circuit Series 3.

Meanwhile, Tsunami Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura acknowledged participants of the last weekend’s meet.

“Great job, everyone. I’m so proud of you all. There were a lot of great swims,” the Tsunami Saipan coach said.

The older Kimura expects more records to fall, as the club will host two more small meets. The second part of the series will be held on Feb. 18, while the last one is scheduled for April 28.