Four CNMI swimmers started seeing action in the 13th FINA World Championships in Rome, Italy yesterday.
Rezne Wong, Shin Kimura, Kai Staal, and Cooper Graf were all scheduled to compete in the morning session (yesterday evening on Saipan) of the first day of the swimming competition in the biannual event.
Kimura was first to plunge into the pool, as he was entered in the 400m freestyle swim. The Grace Christian Academy student was on Heat 2 and had a qualifying time of four minutes, 44.84 seconds.
Kimura will be competing against eight other swimmers, including two fellow Pacific Island swimmers Paul Elaisa and Douglas Miller of Fiji. Macau's Man Pok Ngou holds the best qualifying time on Kimura's heat at 4:22.00.
Australia's Ian Thorpe is the record-holder (both World Championships and world record) in the 400m freestyle with his 3:40.08 and 3:40.17, respectively.
Next up for the CNMI Swimming Team were Cooper Graf and Kai Staal, who both swam in the 50m butterfly event.
Graf was on Heat 3, along with eight other swimmers. His qualifying time was 30.92 seconds. Only one swimmer on Graf's heat broke the 30-second barrier qualifying time in the 50m butterfly event with Fiji's Elaijie Erasito posting 29.53 seconds.
Staal belonged to Heat 4 with a qualifying time of 28.73 seconds. The swimmer with the best qualifying time on Heat 4 was Mauritius' Jean Pascal Hughes-Gregoire (28.47 seconds).
The world record in the 50m butterfly stands at 33.43 seconds by Spain's Rafael Perez Munoz. Russia's Roland Schoeman holds the World Championships record of 22.96 seconds made in Montreal, Canada in July, 2005.
Completing the CNMI's stint in the morning session on Day 1 was Wong, who was on Heat 4 of the 100m breaststroke event.
Wong's qualifying time was 1:10.21, the sixth best among the nine swimmers on his heat. Armenia's Norayr Ghazaryan holds the best record on Heat 4 with his 1:09.48.
Ukraine's Igor Borysik holds the world record in the 100m breastroke after timing in at 58.67 seconds in Ukraine in June this year, while the U.S.'s Brendan Hansen is the World Championships record-holder with his 59.37 seconds posted in 2005 in Canada.
Results in the morning session were unavailable at press time.
The CNMI swimmers, along with coach Hiro Kimura of Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan and Northern Marianas Swimming Federation representative Mike Villagomez of Saipan Swim Club, left Saipan early Wednesday and arrived in Rome on Thursday.
They took an off last Friday before practicing in an indoor pool made of solid marble and built by Mussolini last Saturday.
The four CNMI swimmers were on the same warm-up pool with U.S. swimmers Dara Torres, Aaron Piersal, and Ryan Locte.
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