Dangol strikes gold, sets record

Tsunami Saipan’s Isaiah Aleksenko, left, and Ashley Dangol pose with the medals they won in the Tokyo Junior Sprint 2016 before starting their training session at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool early this week. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Tsunami Saipan’s Ashley Dangol left a mark in her return trip to the Tokyo Junior Sprint 2016 after crashing the meet record in the 50m butterfly.

Dangol timed in at 33.93 seconds to eclipse the 33.95 Michiko Shimokawa of Tokyo Swimming Center set in 2002 in the girls 9-year-old division of the event. Besides registering the new age group mark in the competition held last March 5 and 6 at the Tatsumi International Swimming Arena, the 9-year-old Tsunami swimmer also won the gold medal in the 50m butterfly race, finishing way ahead of Konami’s Saeko Nakamura (34.30 seconds) and JSS Tateishi’s Mine Yoshioka (34.51 seconds).

Dangol’s finals time en route to the gold-medal finish was a big leap from her performance in the qualifying heat. She timed in at 34.94 seconds in the preliminary swims to place fifth out of the 113 participants in the event. The Saipan Community School student qualified in the finals where the Top 8 finishers battled for the podium finish. She was just a few seconds behind the top qualifier.

“The Tokyo Junior Sprint was my greatest swim ever. I was overjoyed when I made it to the finals. I was fifth in the preliminaries so I was quite happy. The first placer was less than 60 milliseconds away. In the marshalling, coach said ‘only the strongest heart will win.’ I wanted that. After my turn I tried to have a great restart. I wanted a small lead and got one. Winning the gold was the best thing ever. Also, I got the record. I was happy I got 33,” Dangol told Saipan Tribune.

The Tsunami Saipan swimmer also competed in the 100m individual medley and nearly earned her second medal in the two-day tournament. She placed fourth in the finals after logging 1:20.52. Kanamachi Swimming Clubs Mio Narita took the gold after recording 1:18.27, while Tokyo Swimming Center’s Maya Kurokawa (1:19.24) and MYS Hanahata’s Nanaka Hara (1:19.51) bagged the silver and bronze, respectively.

Though she missed a second medal, Dangol’s time in the finals was faster than her qualifying record (1:22.52). She was ranked seventh out of the 96 participants in the preliminaries to advance to the finals.

Aleksenko takes silver
Meanwhile, Tsunami Saipan got another award from the Tokyo competition, thanks to Isaiah Aleksenko’s silver-medal swim in the 50m freestyle event for the boys 9-year-old division.

Aleksenko clocked in at 31.85 seconds to place behind gold medal winner Yuusei Kawse (31.56 seconds) of Taiyou Kyouiku SC and beat ISF’s Syuhei Komasu (31.94 seconds).

The SCS student made it to the finals after finishing fourth out of 224 participants in the qualifying swim and timing in at 32.84 seconds.

The 9-year-old Aleksenko also barged into the finals of the 50m butterfly after posting the eighth fastest time in the qualifiers with his 36.40 seconds. The qualifying swims featured 113 swimmers. In the finals, Aleksenko swam better, registering 35.59 seconds to place sixth in the field. Edogawa SC’s Kazuki Yoneyama (33.26 seconds) and Tokyo’s Go Senkitagaya (34.26 seconds) and Rei Narushima (34.71 seconds) made up the Top 3.

Aleksenko and Dangol’s finals appearances in the off-island tournament drew praises from Tsunami Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura.

“These results were really awesome. It was so hard to go to the finals, but they survived two events. We have four champions before, but we didn’t have any meet record. Getting the meet record was our big challenge and dream. Finally, our dream came true this year,” Kimura said.