{"id":242036,"date":"2016-12-07T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T20:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=242036"},"modified":"2016-12-07T06:00:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T20:00:51","slug":"cnmi-swimmers-begin-world-champs-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-swimmers-begin-world-champs-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI swimmers begin world champs bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
From left, CNMI coach Jacoby Winkfield, Christian Villacrusis, Angel De Jesus, and Salofi Welch pose for a photo at the departure area of the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport last weekend before they leave for Canada to compete in the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three CNMI swimmers will plunge into the pool today as they debut in the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships in Windsor, Canada.<\/p>\n

Angel De Jesus, Christian Villacrusis, and Salofi Welch, who left Saipan last weekend along with head coach Jacoby Winkfield to represent the Commonwealth in the six-day short course tournament (25-meter), will be racing in the qualifying heats of five events. De Jesus will join the 50m breaststroke, 200m freestyle, and 100m backstroke on Day 1 of the competition, while Villacrusis and Welch will both participate in the 200m individual medley and 100m breaststroke races at the Windsor Family Credit Union Centre in Ontario.<\/p>\n

In the 100m breaststroke, the CNMI\u2019s two male swimmers are on Heat 1, joining eight other participants. Villacrusis and Welch, whose seed times in the event read at 1.17.76 and 1.23.29, respectively, will go up against Brunei\u2019s Muis Ahmad, Malawi\u2019s Michael Swift, Niger\u2019s Alassane Seydoulancina, Nepal\u2019s Shuvam Shrestha, Honduras\u2019 Josue Portillo, Tanzania\u2019s Adil Bharmal, Gambia\u2019s Jegan Jobe, and Slovenia\u2019s Peter Stevens. There are 10 heats in the 100m breaststroke and only the Top 2 in each pool will advance to the next round.<\/p>\n

In the 200m IM, swimmers are spread in seven heats with the two CNMI bets again on the same group (Heat 1). Welch\u2019s entry time in the eight-lap race is 2.38.59, while Villacrusis\u2019 is listed at 2.34.70. They will be swimming against Great Britain\u2019s Mark Szaranek, Swaziland\u2019s Mark Hoare, Honduras\u2019 Carlos Vasquez, Papua New Guinea\u2019s Standford Kawale, Austria\u2019s Jakub Maly, and Vietnam\u2019s Duy Khoi Tran.<\/p>\n

De Jesus is also on Heat 1 of the women\u2019s 100m backstroke and she will battle only three swimmers\u2014Palau\u2019s Osisang Chilton, Maldives\u2019 Aishath Sausan, and Swaziland\u2019s Robyn Young. The CNMI swimmer\u2019s entry time in the 100m backstroke is 1.24.14.<\/p>\n

In the 200m freestyle, De Jesus\u2019 time is 2.26.15 and she will race in on Heat 1 against Chilton anew. Other entries in the event are the Marshall Islands\u2019 Ruthie Long, Maldives\u2019 Aminath Shajan, Great Britain\u2019s Georgia Coates, and Tonga\u2019s Charissa Panuve.<\/p>\n

For her last event\u2014the 50m breaststroke\u2014De Jesus is on Heat 2 and will be up against nine other swimmers. The list includes Uganda\u2019s Anthea Mudanye, Comoros\u2019 Mohamed Nazlati, Nepal\u2019s Niharika Tuladhar, Curacao\u2019s Tiareth Cijntje, Honduras\u2019 Cecilia Medina, Albania\u2019s Kejsi Delli, Marshall Islands\u2019 Coleen Furgeson and Annie Hepller, and Malawi\u2019s Chang\u2019Anamuni.<\/p>\n

De Jesus and company are among the nearly 1,000 swimmers from 208 members of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale De Natation (FINA) competing in the short course tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three CNMI swimmers will plunge into the pool today as they debut in the 13th…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":242044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4900,10095,26,5414],"class_list":["post-242036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-angel-de-jesus","tag-christian-villacrusis","tag-cnmi","tag-salofi-welch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242036","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}