Team NMI unoffically breaks 9 records in Australia

From left, Jinnosuke Suzuki, Maria Batallones, Shoko Litulumar, and Isaiah Aleksenko pose beside the competition pool of the 2022 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The CNMI National Swimming Team unofficially broke nine national records during their week-long stint in the 2022 FINA World Championships in Melbourne.

Isaiah Aleksenko unofficially broke four NMI records—the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 50m freestyle, and 50m backstroke.

The 16-year-old Marianas High School student swam the 100m butterfly  in 54.55 last Dec. 17  to unofficially break the 1:00.07 set by David Palacios in the 2005 Pacific Mini Games in Palau on July 25, 2005.

Aleksenko swam the 200m butterfly in 2:02.96 last Dec. 15 to unofficially reset the 2:15.09 recorded by Rezne Wong in the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau on March 8, 2010.

He swam the 50m freestyle  23.31 last Dec. 16 to unofficially top Juhn Tenorio’s  23.97 that he swam in the FINA World Championships in Abu Dhabi in Dec. 18, 2021.

Finally, Aleksenko finished the 50m backstroke in 25.84 to unofficially break the 25.91 Kensuke Kimura swam in the Mie Winter Meet in Aichi, Japan in Feb. 18, 2018.

Jinnosuke Suzuki, meanwhile, unofficially eclipsed his own record in the 200m freestyle by timing in at 1:56.27 last Dec. 18. The previous record was 1:57.27 that Suzuki swam in the FINA World Championships in Abu Dhabi in Dec. 17, 2021

Maria Batallones, for her part, unofficially obliterated Nina Mosley’s record in the 50m breastroke when she swam a 34.58 last Dec. 17. The old record was 36.97 that Mosley set in the FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China on April 5, 2006.

Batallones also unofficially reset the previous mark in the 100m breastroke after touching the tiles in a time of 1:18.08 last Dec. 14. That beat Minerva Cabrera’s 1:20.03 that she set in the 2005 Pacific Mini Games in Palau on July 27, 2005.

In the relay, the quartet of Aleksenko, Suzuki, Batallones, and Shoko Litulumar swam the 50m x 4 mixed free relay in 1:46.79 last Dec. 16 to unofficially break the record set last year in the FINA World Championships in Abu Dhabi.

The previous record of 1:50.09 was held by Juhn Tenorio, Suzuki, Asaka Litulumar, and Shoko Litulumar and set on Dec. 17, 2021.

Aleksenko, Suzuki, Batallones, and Shoko Litulumar also unofficially reset the mark in the 50m x 4 mixed medley relay when they swam it in 1:58.93 last Dec. 14.

The old mark of 2:09.28 was set in the 2019 Micronesian Swimming Championships in Palau on April 4, 2019 by Lennosuke Suzuki, Juhn Tenorio, Aika Watanabe, and Sophia Gauran.

The record-setting CNMI national swimmers were coached by national coach Hiroyuki Kimura with support from the Northern Marianas Swimming Federation and the Oceania Swimming Association.