NMI swimmers eye rich medal haul

The CNMI National Swimming Team to the 2024 Micronesian Games in Majuro, Marshall Islands will be the best of the best the Northern Marianas can offer when it comes to aquatics excellence.

The swimming competition, which includes both pool and open water, will be held from June 17 to 21 at the Kwajalein Pool in Kwajalein.

Making up the team are Isaiah Aleksenko, Kean Pajarillaga, Kouki Watanabe, Justin Ma, Richard Zhao, Michael Miller, Shoko Litulumar, Maria Batallones, Sari Barman, Maria Guerrero, Piper Raho, and Nagi Tenorio.

National coach Hiroyuki Kimura said he expects Aleksenko, Pajarillaga, and Batallones to sweep the gold medals in the events they’re competing in, while Watanabe and Litulumar are primed to take the top spot in their backstroke and breaststroke events, respectively. Same for Guerrero in the 200m butterfly.

For Ma and Zhao, Kimura expects either a silver or bronze for both of them, while Barman can salvage a medal in the 50m butterfly.

As for the training leading up to the Micro Games, Kimura said they’ve been preparing more than 100% for the competition in the Marshalls.

“After Isaiah’s Junior Olympic stint, we started focus on Micronesian Game. That’s all we focus on. Swimmers created their workouts by themselves. Our slogan for Micro game is ‘Get stronger by ourselves!’ because we must go forward to the next stage. So, this past six weeks, I didn’t coach my swimmers any more. They’ve thought everything by themselves, planned practice schedule, and created workouts.”

He feels confident that all nine swimmers can bring home a medal each back home to the CNMI.

“It doesn’t matter what color of medal. Standing on the podium is the most important. My mindset is ‘conquer all gold medals.’ This is the ultimate goal that no national swim team has achieved yet in the Micro Games. But we have very high possibility for it this time. However, this is difficult. This goal can only be achieved by working together,” said Kimura.

National coach Richard Sikkel, meanwhile, expects Miller, Raho, and Tenorio to all make the finals of their respective events in the 2024 Micronesian Games and “possibly eke out medals here and there.”

“Nagi is swimming the breaststroke events. Michael and Piper have been focusing in their training on the longer distance free events like the 800m and 1,500m. Piper will also do backstroke as this is her strong stroke. Training has been good. These three had the opportunity to swim in Australia and experience competition conditions not too long ago so there are well prepped to swim their fastest times,” he said.