Tsunami swimmers win 5 medals in Japan

  Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan swimmers brought home five medals from the 2012 Tokyo Junior Sprint 2012 held over the weekend at the Tatsumi International Swimming Arena in Japan.

Coach Hiro Kimura’s swimmers took one gold, two silver, and two bronze medals in the two-day tournament (March 17 and 18) for athletes in the U15 age group. Ryuto Yanai gave Tsunami Saipan its lone gold in the 25-meter pool competition and added one bronze, while Kaito Yanai and Kensuke Kimura had one silver apiece, and Miku Tammy contributed one bronze.

Ryuto Yanai handed Tsunami its first medal when he won in the finals of the boys 8’s 50m freestyle last Saturday with a time of 32.64 seconds. Yanai’s time in the finals was more than one second faster than his qualifying time (33.76 seconds). The 8-year-old swimmer finished second in the preliminary race, which featured 132 swimmers.

Tammy also earned her bronze medal last Saturday when she placed third in the 100m individual medley race (for girls 9 years old), clocking in at 1:20.70. Tammy finished only eighth among the 68 swimmers in the preliminary race with a time of 1:22.60.

Kaito Yanai was entered in the 100m IM, too (boys 12) and after taking the No. 5 spot out of 29 swimmers in the preliminary, he ended up at second place in the finals with a time of 1:09.72, about two seconds faster than his qualifying time (1:11:32).

Kensuke Kimura was the third Tsunami Saipan swimmer to race in the 100m IM and also won a silver medal after submitting 1:02.89 in the finals. The younger Kimura was also the second placer out of 28 swimmers in the preliminary race, timing in at 1:03.12.

Two other Tsunami Saipan swimmers raced in Day 1 of the Tokyo Junior Sprint with Hiroto Yanai and Takumi Sugie competing in the boys 11 and 13’s 50m freestyle swims, respectively. Hiroto logged 31.79 seconds to finish at the No. 42 spot (out of 152 swimmers), while Sugie’s 29.39 seconds was the 37th fastest among 102 participants. Only swimmers whose time made it to the Top 8 advanced to the finals.

Four Tsunami Saipan swimmers marched into the finals in Day 2, but only Ryuto won a medal after placing third in the 50m butterfly. He timed in at 36.39 seconds, which was better than his qualifying time of (37.56 seconds/third best out of 72 swimmers).

Tammy also joined the 50m butterfly swim and her 35.72 seconds (fifth best out of 81 swimmers) was good enough to move her to the finals. The 12-year-old swimmer went on to surpass her qualifying time in the finals after tallying 35.27 seconds, but she missed the medal podium by two notches.

Kaito Yanai and Kimura both entered the 50m breaststroke in Day 2 and barged into the finals after timing in at 35.95 seconds and 32.01 seconds, respectively. Kaito Yanai placed fifth (out of 36 swimmers) in the preliminary and dropped to eighth in the finals with his time of 36.10 seconds. Kimura, who had 32.01 seconds (fourth best out of 21 swimmers) in the preliminary, improved his time in the finals (31.86 seconds), but was one step short of winning his second medal after finishing fourth in the championship race.

Hiroto Yanai and Sugie also swam in Day 2, joining both the 50m backstroke event. Eleven-year-old Hiroto clocked in at 39.20 seconds to finish at No. 36 out of 64 swimmers, while Sugie recorded 35.43 seconds for the 24th spot out of 36 participants.