Coach Hiro happy with young swimmers’ improvement

From left, Sera Guerrero, Yoonmin Cho, Gwen Retardo, Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach Hiroyuki Kimura, Aileen Kim, Fiona Yu, and Shana Barman during the awards ceremony of the Tan Holding 50th Anniversary Swim Meet last month. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach Hiroyuki Kimura is happy how his young up-and-coming swimmers gave a good account of themselves during the Tan Holding 50th Anniversary Swim Meet last month.

He said this is exactly why Tsunami Saipan created the “Tsunami Dream Kids Project 2023.” 

“A lot of our young swimmers became medalists at TanHoldings 50th Anniversary Swim Meet. In the category of 8-and-under, all medalists were from that project. The 10-and-under division’s first and second, the 500m open’s first and second were also from the project.”

Kimura also noted that the 8-and-under division male winner, Leo Li, is still 7 years old and the 10-and-under female winner, Gwen Retardo, is still 8 years old. 

“Not yet the oldest swimmer in each category ruled the race. How wonderful they were! These two categories really gave me a lot of joy as each of their times were very fast,” he said.

Kimura said Tsunami Saipan’s top young swimmers can actually compete in longer distances if they wished to.

“Leo Li, Aileen Kim, Simon Shindo, and Gwen Retardo their times were very fast. They can swim even 1,500m but just swim easily. But we don’t really care about distance. Swimming is the sport which competes time and doesn’t compete distance. So, my requirement to every Tsunami Saipan swimmer is to be conscious about time when we take part in an ocean swim. We never care about distance.”

Kimura added that Sera Guerrero won the women’s 500m race at only 9 years old. More impressive is 11-year-old Haoyang Song who finished second in the men’s 500m and he’s only been practicing with Tsunami Saipan for eight months.

“Next time in the ocean they will swim in the same category (500m) though they can swim the longer category. Swimming the same distance in a faster time is very important for developing swimmers. Increasing distance makes little sense for junior swimmers. It should not be done. When swimmers get used to the distance, they lose good form, get bad habits, and learn to cheat,” according to the Tsunami Saipan mentor.

Kimura also congratulated TanHoldings on the occasion of their 50th anniversary last year. 

“Thank you very much for giving NMI young swimmers such a wonderful opportunity. We really appreciate your continued support.”