“It was a good competition between and many records were broken. We raised money for the Japan earthquake and tsunami survivors,” said Tsunami Saipan’s head coach Hiroyuki Kimura in an interview with the Marianas Variety.
“It was great to see so much participation and an outpouring of help from the community. We will have another swim meet scheduled for next month,” Kimura added.
In the U8 division Ryuto Yanai surpassed Hiroto Yanai’s record in the 50m freestyle category. The latter posted a time of 37.47 last April with the former timing in at 36.18. Lukas Kang was not far behind Ryuto Yanai’s record for he clocked in at 36.56.
Ryuto Yanai then competed in the 100m freestyle breaking his record last year of 1:21.99 with 1:17.86. Again, Kang was not far behind with 1:18.78.
Lukas Kang then outshined all other competitors in four categories breaking four records. First was the 50m back stroke breaking his own record from last year from 42:82 Kang nailed 40.82 last Saturday.
Next was the 100m breast stroke where he beat last year’s Ryosei Toda. Toda completed the race last year in 1:46:19 while Kang clocked in more than six seconds faster with 1:40.77
The breast stroke was followed by the 50m butterfly where Kang improved from his record last year of 40.02 to 38.72. And finally the 200m IM where he completed the circuit four seconds faster from his past record of 3:08.36 to 3:04.92
In the 13-14 age groups for boys, Kensuke Kimura bested his record last year of 9:48.24 in the 800m free style. Last Saturday he improved by 13.98 seconds, 9:34.26. He did not stop there. He also broke Dean Palacios’ long time standing record of 5:12.38 in the 400m IM to 5:09.93. Palacios’ record has been standing strong since August of 2001.
In the 11-12 age groups for girls, records as old as January of 1996 were broken at the Kan Pacific last Saturday. Angel Tan sliced through the water faster than anyone has seen in more than 9 years.
Tan broke Myana Welch’s 50m breast stroke from 39.67 to 39.06 followed by breaking Xenavee Pangelinan’s record of 6:08.07 in the 400m IM to 6:01.04. Welch’s record was made January of 2002 while Pangelinan’s record has stood since January 1996.
Swimming federation’s John Hirsh said, “On behalf of the swimming federation and of course Tsunami Saipan, Saipan Swim Club, and Marianas Resort, I would like to thank all the families and all the swimmers, the timers, and everybody who dedicated themselves the last couple of days to a lot of fun, a lot of great competition and good sportsmanship.”
“And again, thank you all for coming out today and it was a beautiful day and some record swims today so congratulations to those swimmers,” Hirsh further stated in his closing remarks during the swim meet last Saturday.
