Lennosuke breaks 22-year-old record

Saipan Swim Club’s Lennosuke Suzuki does the butterfly stroke of the 200m individual medley event in last Saturday’s SSC Pentathlon Meet at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Saipan Swim Club’s Lennosuke Suzuki crushed the more than two-decade old age group mark in the 50m freestyle after clocking in at 28.13 seconds in the same event during the 2016 SSC Pentathlon Meet held last Saturday at the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool.

“He broke the 22-year-old record in the 11 to 12 boys 50 freestyle. The previous record belonged to Joshua Taitano who is a good friend and former teammate of mine. Congratulations Len,” SSC head coach Jacoby Winkfield said.

Winkfield is talking of the 28.16 seconds Taitano registered on May 6, 1994.

Suzuki’s time was also the fastest in his division, as he defeated Tsunami Saipan’s Nelson Batallones (32.31 seconds) and Juhn Tenorio (34.02) and fellow SSC swimmers Rintaro Miyawaki (36.42) and Akira Kadokura (40.35). The 12-year-old SSC member surpassed his old personal best time (29.26), too, while Batallones, Tenorio, and Miyawaki had the same feats as their previous PBTs read at 33.08 seconds, 34.02, and 36.42, respectively.

With Suzuki ruling the boys 11 to 12’s 50m freestyle, he got the final 9 points he needed to cap his domination in the division as he also topped the four other events in his age group.

In the 50m butterfly, Suzuki timed in at 33.59 seconds to set a new PBT (old PBT was 35.35 seconds) and prevail against Batallones (34.26), Tenorio (36.51), Miyawaki (43.80), and Kadokura (53.35).

Suzuki got another PBT in the 50m backstroke after submitting 35.96 seconds (from 39.08) and also downed the same batch of foes. Tenorio this time placed second behind Suzuki as the former clocked a PBT of 38.01 second (from 40.04), while Batallones (PBT of 38.96), Miyawaki (PBT of 47.93) and Kadokura (PBT of 54.65) finished third to fifth.

In the 50m breaststroke, Suzuki broke the 40-second barrier after posting 39.38 seconds, which is faster than his previous PBT (40.65). He was the lone swimmer in his division to time in under 40 seconds, as Batallones registered 47.87 seconds, Miyawaki logged 48.78, and Tenorio and Kadokura tallied 48.95 and 49.92, respectively.

Suzuki went on to earn 5-for-5 PBT in the weekend meet, as his 2:43.50 in 200m individual medley shattered his old PBT of 2:47.11. Again, Suzuki completed the race ahead of Tenorio (2:58.13), Batallones (2:59.50), Miyawaki (3:36.01) and Kadokura (4:04.99). He finished the competition with 45 points, 12 more than runner-up Batallones, who collected 33. Tenorio had 31 markers to round out the Top 3. Miyawaki (26) placed fourth and was followed by Kadokura (20) and another SSC swimmer Matthew Zedde (3).

Meanwhile, rankings and results in other age groups will be reported later this week.