{"id":358273,"date":"2021-12-23T06:02:50","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T20:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=358273"},"modified":"2021-12-23T06:02:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T20:02:50","slug":"jinnosuke-asaka-finish-strong-in-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jinnosuke-asaka-finish-strong-in-abu-dhabi\/","title":{"rendered":"Jinnosuke, Asaka finish strong in Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jinnosuke
Jinnosuke Suzuki in action in the men\u2019s 100m freestyle of the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships last Monday in the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jinnosuke Suzuki and Asaka Litulumar closed the CNMI\u2019s participation in the15th FINA World Swimming Championships with a bang last Monday with impressive swims inside the cavernous Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Suzuki saw action in his last event of the international meet and completed the men\u2019s 100m freestyle in 53.72.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy with the results of my 100m freestyle because I got a 53 and. My goal was to get a 54 but I was able to beat it by a second,\u201d said the 16-year-old student from Marianas High School.<\/p>\n

For her part, Litulumar swam her women\u2019s 50m freestyle in 29.96.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 50m freestyle was an amazing race because I cut 30 seconds! I was very close to not cutting it, but I pushed myself to go harder and I did my best until the end. I\u2019m really happy with my result!\u201d said the 16-year-old student also from MHS.<\/p>\n

CNMI national swimming coach Hiroyuki Kimura congratulated Suzuki and Litulumar for a job well done in the final day of the world championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so surprised with Jinnosuke\u2019s time of 100m freestyle. A few years ago, it is the dream of every CNMI swimmer to swim under 54 seconds in the 100m freestyle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a point of comparison, the Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center coach said CNMI swimming royalty, Dean Palacios, swam a 55.80 in the same event in the FINA Short Course World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.<\/p>\n

He also referenced CNMI Sports Hall of Famer and Olympian Jonathan Sakovich\u2019s 54.44 record in the boys\u2019 15-16 age group and his CNMI record 53.98 in the boys\u2019 17-18 division.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CNMI record is 53.98 set by Jonathan Sakovich. We can understand easily why Jinnosuke\u2019s 53.72 is a superfast time for the CNMI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Asaka
Asaka Litulumar prepares to swim in the women\u2019s 50m freestyle of the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships last Monday in the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kimura was equally impressed with Litulumar\u2019s performance in the women\u2019s 50m freestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsaka amazingly cut the 30-second barrier. Her time was 29.96. Asaka missed closely her target in the women\u2019s 100m freestyle, so she was very enthusiastic with her swim in the 50m freestyle. Asaka also beat two Micronesian swimmers on the way to her awesome performance in the 50m freestyle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from Suzuki, Litulumar, and fellow national swimmers Juhn Tenorio and Shoko Litulumar and coach Kimura, also part of the CNMI delegation in Abu Dhabi are Northern Mariana Islands Swimming Federation representatives Richard Sikkel and Hiroko Tenorio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jinnosuke Suzuki and Asaka Litulumar closed the CNMI\u2019s participation in the15th FINA World Swimming Championships…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":358276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23103],"class_list":["post-358273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-abu-dhabi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358273","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}