{"id":14220,"date":"2012-05-04T02:03:41","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T02:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=14220"},"modified":"2012-05-04T02:03:41","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T02:03:41","slug":"rezne-off-to-2012-oceania-swimming-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/rezne-off-to-2012-oceania-swimming-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Rezne off to 2012 Oceania Swimming Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By Mark Rabago<br \/>\nAssociate Editor<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/imgupload\/issx9999ns118632.jpg\" alt=\"Rezne Wong, seen here in action for University of Hawaii-Hilo, will represent the CNMI in the 2012 Oceania Swimming Championships in Noumea, New Caledonia. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)\" width=\"100\" height=\"59\" border=\"0\" \/>\u00a0University of Hawaii-Manoa swimmer and 2010 NMASA Athlete of the Year Rezne Wong will represent the CNMI in the 2012 Oceania Swimming Championships in Noumea, New Caledonia.<\/p>\n<p>Wong, who will plunge into action from May 28 to June 2 at Noumea&#8217;s Aquatic Centre, last represented the Commonwealth in the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.<\/p>\n<p>The 5&#8217;11\u201d Marianas High School alumnus reset three CNMI records in his Shenzhen tilt.<\/p>\n<p>He broke the islands&#8217; 50m breaststroke mark (31.31), eclipsing his old mark of 31.62 set in the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Wong, who is a Marine Biology junior at UH-Manoa, also shattered CNMI records in the 50m butterfly and 100m breaststroke.<\/p>\n<p>The 26.66 he recorded in the 50m butterfly obliterated the 27.87 Kai Staal set in April 2011, while the 1:07.66 he logged in the 100m breaststroke beat his old mark of 1:08.79 also set in the Rome World Championships.<\/p>\n<p>A familiar face is expected to help Wong in Noumea, as Saipan Swim Club co-founder Bill Sakovich will once again coach his former ward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did fairly well in the conference championships last month on the mainland, helping the University of Hawaii to a second or third place conference finish, and it was the team&#8217;s first participation in a tougher league. So I hope he does well. I would hope he would final in a couple of his events, but swimmers from New Zealand and Australia will be tough. Either way, it will be a good competition for Rezne,\u201d said Sakovich in an email to Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n<p>Sakovich, who now lives in Hilo, Hawaii, mentored Wong in his formative years when was still the head coach of the SSC.<\/p>\n<p>Wong won the 2010 Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association male athlete of the year award after striking gold 12 times in the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, SSC members Xenavee Pangelinan, the late Audra Winkfield, Jessica Jordan, and David Palacios represented the CNMI in the Oceania Swimming Championships.<\/p>\n<p>The Oceania Swimming Championships are currently held every two years, in even years.<\/p>\n<p>Thee regional championships is organized by the Oceania Swimming Association, and feature teams representing countries and islands from that region. Approximately 16 nations from Oceania will be competing.<\/p>\n<p>The past Championships were held in Noumea (1993), Brisbane, Australia (1997), Christchurch, New Zealand (2000), Noumea (2002), Suva, Fiji (2004), Cairns, Australia (2006), Christchurch (2008), and Apia, Samoa (2010).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mark Rabago Associate Editor \u00a0University of Hawaii-Manoa swimmer and 2010 NMASA Athlete of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}