{"id":361533,"date":"2022-02-08T06:06:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T20:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=361533"},"modified":"2022-02-08T06:06:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T20:06:40","slug":"dangol-makes-it-to-usa-junior-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/dangol-makes-it-to-usa-junior-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangol makes it to USA Junior Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"
Aasish Dangol in action while swimming for Albany Armada Aquatics, LLC. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Saipan resident Aasish Dangol made it to the USA Swimming Junior Rankings and was previously currently No. 8 in the 12-and-under age group.<\/p>\n

Currently swimming for the Albany Armada Aquatics, LLC, the now 13-year-old finished eighth in the SCY 400m individual medley of the 2021 PC AAA Intrasquad Distance Day with a time of 4:26:36 to get his national ranking.<\/p>\n

Dangol, who like his older sister Ashley used to swim for Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center, didnt make a big deal out of being nationally ranked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really sure how it feels to be \u2018nationally ranked.\u2019 I didn\u2019t gain any fame or anything. I feel the same, the only difference it made was that now I want to push myself harder to rank higher and in more events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dangol said on the lead up to the 2021 PC AAA Intrasquad Distance Day, he wasn\u2019t able to join many swimming meets because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the meet I did right before I turned 13, I placed eighth in the nation in 400 IM for 12-year-olds and 99th all time for the 11-12 age group. I also placed 13th in the nation for the 200m fly in the 11-12 age group. Now that I am 13, I am not ranked nearly as high for the 13-14 age group, but I am working my way up.\u201d
\nDangol
\nrecently qualified for a meet called Sectionals, which is a meet with very few 13-year-olds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in LA, and I went for a team relay. While there, I qualified for the 200m butterfly, missed the 400m IM by 0.5 seconds, and nearly qualified in the 200 breast. On the weekend of the 29th, I went to a zone swim meet and was the top qualifier for an all-star team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dangol thanked his parents and sister, Tsunami Saipan coach Hiroyuki Kimura, and all the teammates he swam with for all the success he\u2019s so far achieved in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to dedicate my progress to everybody who helped me get here. They all played a part in my swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dangol followed his sister Ashley when she picked swimming as the sport she wanted to learn growing up on Saipan.<\/p>\n

Aasish Dangol said he misses everything on Saipan from the banana trees to his friends. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShe started to swim at a young age, and being the younger brother that I am, I followed suit. Now, eight years later, I love the sport that I do, and can\u2019t think of what I would be without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Kimura definitely gave him a great start in swimming, especially in hard events like the 400m IM.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard practices there and then the technique work here made me a strong swimmer who is now improving my strokes, which I think is really good. However, while swimming on Saipan, I was taught a lot more than just how to swim. Coach Hiro taught me how to be punctual, taught me dedication, taught me about hard work, and helped me become me. I got to experience things I\u2019ll never experience here like meets in Japan or swimming around tanks in the ocean. Tsunami Saipan showed me how a team can come together, be loud, fun, exciting, and have teammates who push each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dangol currently trains eight times a week at the Albany Aquatic Center in Albany, California. There, the practices are technique-based and workouts are focused on strokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have dry land twice a week and have goal-setting once a week. Goal-setting is where you set goals and talk about how you should swim your races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he misses most about Saipan, Dangol\u2019s reply is: \u201cIts simplicity, my friends, and just Saipan in general. When I can, I would want to go back and visit Saipan. I can\u2019t pick one specific thing I miss most, I miss everything from the banana trees to my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Saipan resident Aasish Dangol made it to the USA Swimming Junior Rankings and was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":361535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361533","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=361533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}