Kimura vows a medal every day for swimming

No less than a medal in everyday of the swimming competition is the expectation of CNMI National Swimming Team head coach Hiroyuki Kimura during the 2023 Honiara Pacific Games.

“The first medal for Team NMI must be in swimming! I know we will win a medal every day,” he said in an interview with Saipan Tribune.

Helping him and co-head coach Richard Sikkel accomplish that feat is the islands’ 15-swimmer strong delegation to the quadrennial event in the Solomon Islands.

They are made up of Juhn Tenorio, Isaiah Aleksenko, Kean Pajarillaga, Kouki Watanabe, Kevin Guerrero, Andrew Nunez, Julia Jinang, Shoko Litulumar, and Maria Batallones from Kimura’s very own Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center and Taiyo Akimaru, Moshe Sikkel, Michael Miller, Jinie Thompson, Piper Raho, and Nagi Tenorio of the Saipan Swim Club, which Sikkel coaches.

Also joining the group are managers Yuko Kimura and Judy Mendieta.

Kimura said since the Pacific Games is the epitome of sports competition in the region, the CNMI National Swimming Team is taking it very seriously.

“The Pacific Games is never a developmental meet. It’s a competition. This is truly a struggle for the islands’ prestige. Of course, having friendship with other country swimmers is important. However, it is through serious race that true friendships develop, and it is through hard training that we are able to understand each other,” he said.

To this end, the longtime Tsunami Saipan head coach hopes to give the CNMI the most medals in the 2023 Pacific Games.

“It is the coach’s responsibility to get as many swimmers to make it through the preliminary round, onto the final stage, and on the podium. Even if swimmers don’t make it to the finals, I want them to do their best to aim for a higher ranking. While representing the CNMI, it is the swimmer’s responsibility to aim for a higher ranking than swimmers from the same region in Micronesia,” said Kimura.

He then pointed to Aleksenko (50m, 100m, and 200m butterfly), Juhn Tenorio (50m, 100m, and 200m backstroke), and Batallones (50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke) as carrying the best chances to medal for Team NMI.

“It will be difficult for anyone other than these swimmers to win medals in individual competition,” he said.

Kimura also expects the CNMI to scoop more medals in the men’s 100×4 freestyle, 200×4 freestyle, and 100×4 medley relay events.

“This would be a great accomplishment if we win a medal in the relay. This is a chance the CNMI won’t get again.”

Enroute to hopefully bagging medals, a bunch of them are also expected to break national and age group records—Juhn Tenorio (50m, 100m, 200m backstroke), Aleksenko (50m, 100m, 200m freestyle and 50m, 100m, 200m butterfly), Pajarillaga (200m backstroke), Watanabe (50m, 100m, 200m breaststroke), Litulumar (50m backstroke), and Batallones (50m, 100m, 200m breaststroke).

Meanwhile, Sikkel is a bit more subdued on his medal expectations in the Solomons.

“Expectations are high for our Pacific Games team. Medals we will have to wait and see, since a lot of very solid swimming nations will be represented at the Pacific Games. I do expect a lot of our swimmers to make finals though as for national records and age group records, I expect the swimmers to break scores of records. We have a lot of very talented swimmers who will get their first crack at swimming in a regulation-size pool in a while. Expect some NMI fireworks!” he said.

The Saipan Swim Club thanked World Aquatics for investing in swim development, the Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation for their unwavering support, Pacific Islands Club Saipan for the use of their lap pool and their lifeguards for training, Aqua Resort Club for their willingness to let the national team to use their deep pool for starts practices, PHI Pharmacy for providing anti-malaria medication, and assistant coaches Christian Villacrusis and David Roberto for “putting in the long hours training with these guys,” said Sikkel.

Aside from Aqua Resort and PHI Pharmacy, Kimura also thanked the Tan family, assistant coach Michelle Chen, Tsunami Saipan parents fundraising team, all Tsunami Saipan parents, and the Hosei University swim team for accepting their swimmers for training.