Saipan tankers drown rivals in HSBC Ocean Swim meet

Teams and individuals from Japan, Guam, Australia and Saipan competed in the choppy waters off the lagoon in the 23rd Annual HSBC Saipan Ocean Swim over the Weekend with keen competition in all the events.

Saipan swimmers took golds in all the age group events with the exception of the girls 14 and under which went to Guam’s Manukai AC’s Amanda Aquino, beating teammate Keesha Sablan by one tenth of a second.

Cooper Graf outdistanced teammate Tyler Sinclair for the 8 and under title, while Amanda Johnson and Michael Camacho dominated the 10 and under, Rezne Wong took silver medal for the boys and Priscilla Cabildo for the girls.

Melisa Coleman and Quincy Johnson bested their closest rivals, Myana Welch and Juan Camacho by over one minute in the 12 and under age category who swam 1.3 kilometers.

Dean Palacios was well ahead of second place finisher Naoto Kobayashi of the Watermates SC of Yokohama in the 14 and unders, and Tami Winkfield and Seung Gin Lee took the golds in the senior division.

The total entries was split with sixty competitors in youth age groups and an equal amount for the Maters, 20 years and over.

The highlight of the Masters, who had a choice of the 1.3 km race or the 2.5 km race, was in the 2.5 km where two of Japan’s open water national team members, who have spent the past week training on Saipan in the lagoon and at Kan Pacific Swimming Pool went head to head the full distance, with Hiroki Hikita from Miyakojima edging out Takashi Sugisawa in 29:16 to 29:26.

Hiroki competed in the World Swimming Championships in Honolulu and Takashi in the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships. Their times were almost three minutes faster than the previous record swim set by Dan O’keefe from Guam in 1999.

Dan placed third in this event with Hiro Sugie of the Aqua Resort Hotel following in fourth. Kenjie Nagata, Trainer for the Japanese national team was 5th, Tyce Mister 6th, Bill Sakovich 7th and William Rosenburgh in 8th.

In the Women’s 2.5 km race, another record was demolished by over 2 minutes, with Zaan Claassens breaking Nicole Forelli’s record in a time of 40.43. Zaan was followed by Vanessa Ince, Tomoka Masuda, Jean Sakovich, Alberta Carpenter, Kanae Quinn, Kathryn Sinclair and Kiyomi Masuda in that order.

In the Masters 1.3 km course one record was broken by Danny Stern, breaking the old record set last year by Yoshiharu Endo in 21.40. Winners in their respective divisions for the 1.3 km race other than Stern were Asami Murakami of Japan, Pam Dumlap, Mike Villagomez, Carol Lyn Pierce of Saipan, Masahrau Doshita and Kazako Suzuki of the Watermates SC and Kazuko Kajiwara of Japan Masters.

Kan Pacific Swimming Pool’s Gary De Guzman was second to Doshita in the 40 and over age group. Mrs. Yoshiko Nagata, 75 years old, was the oldest swimmer to compete having competed in this event in 1991 and now taking 5th place.

The awards party was held that same evening at the Saipan Diamond Hotel Garden Lanai where the athletes received their awards and the sponsors and volunteers were recognized.

The Saipan Swim Club would like to thank the following for their support of the 23rd HSBC Saipan Ocean Swim: HSBC, the Saipan Diamond Hotel, Public Safety/Boating Safety, CRM, Saipan Photo Lab, the volunteers and those who made contributions to the event. The club really appreciated the continued sponsorship of the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation for the annual Saipan Ocean Swim.