Previous Story
Team NMI coach amazed by swimmers
|
Posted on Dec 22 2022
From left, Jinnosuke Suzuki, Shoko Litulumar, Isaiah Aleksenko, and Maria Batallones pose at the entrance gate for the competition pool of the 2022 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
“More than amazing” is what national swimming coach Hiroyuki Kimiura describes the CNMI National Swimming Team’s performance in last week’s 2022 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
“Nine national records from a single competition! It’s more than amazing!” said the Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center head coach.
And to think that Isaiah Aleksenko, Jinnosuke Suzuki, Maria Batallones, and Shoko Litulumar achieved the feat with local swimmers having no official pool for the past couple of years now.
CNMI national swimmers Jinnosuke Suzuki, Shoko Litulumar, Isaiah Aleksenko, and Maria Batallones poses with Guam swimmers during a break in the 2022 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
“Of course, everyone will be happy if there’s an official competition pool on Saipan. But the most important thing is not where we swim or which facility we use. I keep training our swimmers with that mindset,” said Kimura.
He then went on to thank the Northern Marianas Swimming Federation and their legion of supporters for making their trip to the Land Down Under a success.
“As a coach of this CNMI National Swimming Team I’m so proud and really would like to thank NMSF president Colin Thompson and vice president John Hirsh, swimmers and their parents, all Tsunami Saipan parents and donors, Hiroko Tenorio, and my wife and Tsunami team manager Yuko Kimura. Not only Saipan people, but also some of Japanese people support us, letting us use their pool, dormitory, and also providing transportation! Without their support and help, we’ve never made this great result.”
Before arriving in Australia, Kimura and the CNMI national swimmers had a stopover in Japan where they reunited with former national swimmer Juhn Tenorio in a mini swim camp.
All four CNMI swimmers contributed in the nine national records broken.
Aleksenko broke four NMI records—the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 50m freestyle, and 50m backstroke.
Suzuki, meanwhile, eclipsed his own record in the 200m freestyle.
Batallones, for her part, obliterated the old record in the 50m breastroke and also reset the previous mark in the 100m breastroke.
In the relay, the quartet of Aleksenko, Suzuki, Batallones, and Shoko Litulumar swam a new standard in both the 50m x 4 mixed free relay and mixed medley relay.
