Saipan swimmers back from Youth Olympic

Two Saipan swimmers were selected to participate in the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival, a multi-sport event for young Olympic hopefuls between the ages of 14 to 19 years old.

The sports festival was conducted by the Australian Olympic committee in cooperation with it’s National Sporting Bodies, providing the highest level of competition to elite junior athletes in 10 summer Olympic sports.

The Youth Olympic started Jan. 10,2001 at the Sydney Entertainment Center with a fabulous opening ceremony and the Athlete March, highlighted by village accommodations in various schools around Sydney, and five days of fierce competition.

Participants competed in ten sports that include hockey, basketball, beach volleyball, canoe-kayak, gymnastics, swimming, rowing, cycling, athletics and triathlon. Hundreds from around Australia and other countries witnessed the event.

Teams from Oceania competed in basketball (winning three games), cycling (New Caledonia), and swimming (NMI). Other countries that sent teams were New Zealand, Japan, China, Malaysia, Germany, Russia, the US, Canada, Great Britain, France and Mexico, as well as the states and territories of Australia.

The Sydney Youth Olympic festival is a legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic games and has the patronage of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and could provide additional sports in the future.

This festival provides an opportunity for young athletes to compete in the footsteps of their Olympic heroes, in an Olympic style event, and the swimming was just that, with the best swimmers from 14-19 years old from Australia, New Zealand, Oceania (NMI), US, Japan and Canada.

Accommodation for the almost 2,000 athletes and coaches was spread out to three school sites that had boarding facilities. The NMI team stayed with all other swimmers at St. Joseph’s College, a boarding high school of 850 male students with numerous sports facilities.

The school is over 100 years old and some of the buildings are very old and usable, as was the dorm for the boys, meals were served three times a day in the cafeteria and they had bus transport to the Sydney Aquatic Center for the morning trials and evening finals.

Two fifteen year olds were selected from the Northern Marianas, Tamiko Winkfield, a sophomore at MHS and Seung Gin Lee, a sophomore at GCA.

Although neither were able to win medals, they both agreed that the experience gained was probably even more valuable. These athletes were the best juniors in their countries and many will probably become future Olympians.

Most competitors were older, 17-18 years, but there were some excellent 14 year olds who also won titles. Two young Canadian swimmers posted times that he would have put them in the finals in the Sydney Olympics in their respective events.

Cheered on by swimmers from all nations, Tami Winkfeild dropped 42 seconds in here 1500m swim, with a new Personal Best and a new NMI national record in 19:22.50, but was out of the medal count.

She also posted PB’s in the 800m Free in 10:11.69, and the 200 Free in 2:22.11. Tami also swam the 100 Free in 1:07.10 and the 400 Free in 5:01.07.

Seung Gin Lee competed in seven events, swimming PB’s in most and tying one NMI age group record in the 100m backstroke held by Josh Taitano in 1:07.39.

Seung Gin Lee also lowered his times in the 100m Butterfly to 1:04.17, the 50m Free in 26.92, the 100m Free in 57.60 and the 200 IM in 2:24.40. He also swam the 200 Free in 2;15.67 and the 200 Backstroke in 2:26.49.