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Flashback: Kimura breaks record twice
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Posted on May 21 2020
Kensuke Kimura is seen here competing in the 100m backstroke event in a local meet at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi in 2014. (Saipan Tribune)
Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan’s Kensuke Kimura, on this day six years ago, had record-breaking performances in the 2014 Oceania Swimming Championships held at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.
The then 17-year-old Kimura raced in the 50m backstroke preliminaries and timed in at 29.08 seconds to surpass the national mark (29.13 seconds) he himself registered on March 21, 2014. His old national and age group record crushed the time of Kai Staal (29.50 seconds set on April 16, 2011).
Kimura qualified in the finals of the Oceania event and in the gold medal race, he eclipse his record anew after breaking the 29-second barrier, as he clocked in at he 28.94 seconds, the sixth best time in the field.
Up to this day, Kimura’s 28.94 seconds is still unbeaten in the 17 to 18 age group.
Overall, Kimura owns three national records with the two others in the 100m backstroke (1:02.67/May 20, 2014) and in the 200m backstroke (2:18.04/May 22, 2014).
Besides his national marks, Kimura, who is now based in Japan, holds 10 age group records—three each in the 17 to 18 and 15 to 16 divisions and four in the 13 to 14 bracket.
Besides his participation in the Oceania Swimming Championships, the 24-year-old Kimura also represented the CNMI in the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau, the 2013 FINA World Championships in Spain, and the 2011 FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Tokyo.
