Isaiah swims to 100m butterfly bronze

HONIARA, Solomon Islands—NMI’s flagbearer Isaiah Aleksenko won bronze in the 100m butterfly on Day 1 of swimming Monday evening at the Aquatics Center during the 2023 Pacific Games.

Aleksenko was in a deadlock with New Caledonia swimmers in the final meters of the race—with a sea of Team NMI cheering for him— but settled for bronze with a time of 55.38 seconds.

New Caledonia’s Ethan Dumesnil and Thibaut Mary claimed the Top 2 spots with times of 54.82 and 55.29, respectively.

After the swimming competition, Aleksenko said that he was happy with winning bronze, but felt that he could’ve done better.

“I expected first but I probably didn’t warm up that well so I was a little slower than the first-place winner. I didn’t get a PR sadly. I was thinking about updating my best time and getting gold. As for the facility, the pool is a little hot so I’m not really used to that because usually competition pools are supposed to be cold.”

As for how his experience has been so far in the Solomons, he said, “It’s great, the people here are very supportive and I love it. This is probably the most supportive place I’ve been in.”

Earlier in the day during the prelims, the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team consisting of Aleksenko, Juhn Tenorio, Kean Parajillaga, and Taiyo Akimura, broke the long-standing men’s freestyle relay national record with a time of 3:40.51, then went on to improve it to 3:39.66 in the finals later that evening The record time they broke was 3:57.83 that was set in 2009.

Aleksenko, who swam the first leg, said on breaking the record, “We were all happy but we wanted to try and place but unfortunately didn’t. I was so tired because it was after my event and I know I could’ve done better if it was one by one but at least we beat the record.”

In the other events, the NMI’s youngest swimmer, Frances Raho came in last in the women’s 400m freestyle with a time of 5:32.85.

After the prelims in the morning, 14-year-old Raho said her experience so far has been good. “I like learning from other swimmers around the world.”

Maria Batallones tried to break the women’s 200m breaststroke national record, but came up just a second short as she finished with a time of 2:54.20. Teammate Nagi Tenorio finished last with a time of 3:49.37.

Kouki Watanabe just finished short of the podium in the men’s 200m breaststroke as he clocked in with a time of 2:34.88.

Finally, in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay, the team made up of Shoko Litulumar, Frances Raho, Julia Jinang, and Batallones finished fifth with a time of 4:33.80.

Coach Hiroyuki Kimura said of Aleksenko’s win, “That is an epoch in CNMI swimming history. He challenged world top class swimmers, Robert Wesley of the Cook Island and Ethan Dumesnil and Thibaut Mary of New Caledonia. Isaiah showed us his strong spirit in the 100m butterfly and won the bronze medal. The race was so exciting and thrilling.”

“Though [he] could not break his personal best time unfortunately, I’m super proud of my boy! So much well done!!” exclaimed Kimura.

He added that Aleksenko’s main event is 200m butterfly and so, Kimura said, “he will surprise us the most then.”

On the team’s performance after a long Day 1, he said that everyone did their best in each event.

Kimura went on to say that back home, there is no set swimming pool for the swimmers to train in besides hotel pools, but that NMI swimmers swam against top swimmers and made it to the finals on Day 1.

He added, “CNMI adult people should respect their bravery and spirit. Again, we don’t have a swimming pool in our island, building the pool is the duty of adult people, I believe.”

Coach Richard Sikkel, for his part said, “Taking into consideration the depth of the field and the number of finals the swimmers made, I’d say they performed well…”

“Isaiah did great. Medaling in the Pacific Games is pretty impressive. In short races, the difference between the top [is] very small,” he said.

On what’s the focus now after a full day of races, he said, “Focus is the same. Get as many swimmers to qualify for the finals and possibly pick up a medal or two.”

Results of Day 2 will be published in the next edition of Saipan Tribune.