Saipan Tribune

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Monday, January 28, 2013

Over 80 swimmers complete Meek & Mighty

Last Saturday's 8th SSC Annual Meek & Mighty Ocean Swim had a big turnout with over 80 swimmers completing the races in the waters of the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio.

According to Saipan Swim Club, 83 swimmers (more than double last year's turnout of around 40) did the four courses with SSC's Milan Goodwin topping the Minnow division and Tsunami Saipan's Ryuto and Hiroto Yanai and Kensuke Kimura sweeping the last three categories.

Goodwin finished the around 200m swim at the 4:47 mark, besting 11 other young swimmers. She was the lone swimmer to complete last weekend's shortest course under the five-minute mark, as the next two finishers (names unavailable) clocked in at 5:24 and 5:25.

In the Meek course, which was a one-lap swim with a distance of 775 meters, Ryuto Yanai prevailed against more than 30 swimmers. The Tsunami Saipan bet submitted 12:34 to beat adult swimmer Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel, who logged in 13:40. Completing the Top 5 were SSC's Rintaro Takahashi (14:47) and Rintaro Miyawaki (15:27), and Tsunami Saipan's Karen Irinaka and SSC's Conatsu Kaga, who made it to the shore at the same time (16:10).

Ryuto's elder brother, Hiroto, won the three-lap, 2,325m Tweener course with a time of 35:47, just 11 seconds ahead of runner-up and first female finisher Angel Marie Tan, who recorded 35:50. Hiroto and Tan's teammates Angel De Jesus and Miku Tammy shared third place after clocking in at 39:53.

Other finishers in the Tweener course were Lennosuke Suzuki (42:42) and Taiga Sato (42:43), Nicky Nichols (47:47), Paul Plunkett (50:49), Daniel Calvo (50:49), Suzy Kindel (51:13), Joshua Berger (51:36), Manny Sitchon (54:54), Sean Smith (58:16), John Alrich (1:00:15), Florence Antonio (1:100:15), Michael Villagomez (1:00:58), and Jennifer Kogure (1:03:33).

For the longest race of the weekend-the 3,875m Mighty course-Kimura broke the one-hour barrier, completing the event at the 54:21 mark. Kimura's Tsunami Saipan teammates Takumi Sugie and Kaito Yanai rounded out the Top 3 with times of 57:05 and 57:06, respectively.

Victoria Chentsova of SSC was the fourth and last swimmer to finish the longest course under the one-hour mark with her 59:41. Other finishers of the five-lap course were SSC's Kento Akimaru (1:00:15), Jeff El-Hajj (1:00:16), Ed Ewing (1:00:17), and Carol Lynn Pierce (1:13:55).

Meanwhile, SSC president Robert Torres thanked all the participants and PIC for supporting the annual event, which awarded medals to the top finisher of each race. (Saipan Tribune)