By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

THIRTY-NINE swimmers joined Saipan Swim Club’s 2007 Saipan Ocean Swim last Saturday with three world championship veterans ruling their respective events.
Rezne Wong, who swam in 10 events in the 2007 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia last month, was the first swimmer to finish the 2.5-km race timing in at 36 minutes, 20 seconds to top the boys’ 15 to 19 age group.
Wong’s world championship teammates Cooper Graf and Sarah Johnson ruled the boys and girls’ 13 to 14 age group, respectively.
Graf clocked 38.58 to beat Shin Kimura (40.39), Kai Staal (43:08) and Blair Nicholls (44.31).
Johnson posted the same time as Kimura, but she was ahead of Selyna Leon Guerrero, who clocked 43.38.
The three world championship veterans were in the third group, which also had participants in the older age division in the 1.3km.
Participants in the 29th edition of the annual tournament were divided into three. groups They swam in water less than two meters deep and around two partially submerged World War II tanks left stranded inside the lagoon in Susupe.
The first wave was the 8-and-under competition (600m race), followed by 9-and-up (1000m).
The race, which was twice postponed due to earlier commitments by participants and other major sports events scheduled last month, was delayed because of rain. The starting line was at the World Resort beach.
After the swimmers in the first two waves finished the race, it rained anew with participants in the older age group and longer course forced to swim the first few meters of the race while it was raining.
Other top winners in the ocean swim were Christian Yamada, David Palacios, Colin Thompson, Mark Staal, Nicky Nicholls, Gary De Guzman, Maxi Braig, Opal Northen, Dominique Austin, Kristina Springer, Mamiko Oshima, Dawn Hammermeister, Carol Lynn Pierce-Cabbong, Suzy Kindel, Kensuke Kimura and Lester Lapuz.
Thomson finished first in the 1.3km race with a time of 19:04 beating four other participants while Yamada (33:55) and Palacios (38:53,) won the 1.3km and 2.5km race, respectively, in the boys 20-29 age group.
Mark outraced Tom Austin and Michael Johnson in the men’s 40-49 2.5k race with a time of 44.20. Austin posted 47.12, while Johnson timed in at 48.45.
Nicky defeated Joshua Berger in the 50-59 age group finishing the 1.3km race in 23:17, while De Guzman topped Florian Briag in the 2.5km race after clocking 43.34.
Maxi won the 600m race in the boys’ 8-and-under, while Kindel and Springer prevailed in the 50-59 2.5km and 20-29 1.3km races, respectively, with a time of 52.41 and 22.41.
Opal and Lapuz topped the women’s 9-10 1000m and boys’ 11-12 1.3km races, respectively. Oshima clocked 27:54 to win the girls 30-39 1.3km race, Hammermeister timed in at 23:21 to rule the 40-49 age group and Pierce-Cabbong posted 44.26 to top the women’s 40-49 2.5km race.
Kensuke clocked 15.39 in the boys’ 9-10 1000m race to beat Andrew Kimball (21 minutes) and Kasei Toda (23.11).
Dominuqe timed in at 21.21 to defeat Grace Kimball (21.53) and Ashley Northen (29.50) in the girls’ 11-12 1.3km race.