{"id":409796,"date":"2024-06-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=409796"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Swimmers-scoop-4-gold-medals-in-Day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Swimmers-scoop-4-gold-medals-in-Day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimmers scoop 4 gold medals in Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CNMI National Swimming Team made immediate waves by bagging four gold medals in Day 2 of the 2024 Micronesian Games yesterday at the Kwajalein Pool in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.<\/p>\n

Beach volleyball, meanwhile, got going last Saturday with the women\u2019s team winning two of their first three games and the men, so far, logging a 1-2 win-loss record at the Majuro Track & field.<\/p>\n

National swimmer Kean Pajarillaga struck first by topping the men\u2019s 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:06.74, while teammate Justin Ma also made the podium by coming in third with a swim of 18:25.24. Pohnpei\u2019s Kyler Kihleng took the silver in 17:30.60.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel pretty happy about my race, but I wish I would\u2019ve gotten a faster time though. I wanted to have a time that was closer to my college\u2019s record for my event. I am dedicating this win to my family, my coach and his wife, and my friends,\u201d said Pajarillaga.<\/p>\n

Maria Batallones then kept the CNMI rolling with another gold in the women\u2019s 1,650-yard freestyle after touching the tile in 19:32.65. Frances Raho gave Team NMI a 1-2 finish with a swim of 20:05.97, while Sari Barman almost gave the CNMI a sweep but settled for fourth place with a time of 22:12.83. Palau\u2019s Mikel Galyah took the bronze (20:56.07).<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the race I felt nervous and excited. For the most part nervous because I didn\u2019t know what to expect, and excited because I believed in myself. Swimming the mile felt amazing to me, I was really feeling that race. I made sure to watch my pace and have nice strong strides.Seeing my coach cheering me on by the poolside really encouraged me to swim faster. The mile is a long swim so there was a lot on my mind, however, I used that as my motivation. I was thinking of my family watching at home and I could hear the crowd and my teammates cheering me on. A lot of people believe in me, so I made sure not to let them down. This was my first win of this competition and I would like to think of this as an inspiration for the days ahead of me,\u201d said Batallones.<\/p>\n

The CNMI also mined gold medals in the mixed 200-yard freestyle relay and mixed 400-yard freestyle relay.<\/p>\n

Pajarillaga then teamed up with Isaiah Aleksenko, Maria Guerrero, and Shoko Litulumar to blow Palau out of the water in the mixed 200-yard freestyle relay, 1:36.66-1:39.57. Host Marshall Islands was third (1:39.96).<\/p>\n

In the mixed 400-yard freestyle relay, Batallones, Aleksenko, Raho, and Kouki Watanabe grabbed the gold with a dominating 3:52.10 swim. Palau (4:05.61) and Pohnpei (4:16.27) were a far second and third.<\/p>\n

In beach volleyball, Kathy Winkfield and Aurora Santos won their debut by beating host Marshall Island, while Dylan Mister and Jermaine Salas topped Marshall Islands, but lost to Palau last Saturday. Yesterday, Winkfield and Santos got the better of Nauru, but absorbed a 7-21, 24-22, 15-10 setback against Guam, while Mister and Salas lost a 18-21, 19-21 decision against Nauru.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth teams are doing very well considering we\u2019ve only practiced with each other for the first time for two days before competition. Both teams are learning to adjust to each other styles and learning with every game. It\u2019s like a crash course team building session on how to play with your partner,\u201d said playing coach Winkfield.<\/p>\n

On the conditions at the sand court inside the Majuro Track & Field, the Northern Marianas College teacher said weather definitely has been a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sand courts are nice but there is only one court and it is very windy which makes the game more challenging but fun at the same time. We have had some heavy downpours which both CNMI teams had to endure but it did not affect our wins. Majuro is nice, you can see the whole island in the lagoon and the people are so friendly. They have all been respectful and curious and it\u2019s been great communicating and making friends with the other islands. Definitely an amazing, unforgettable experience!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And speaking of challenges, CNMI National Tennis coach Jeff Race said the sport\u2019s two venues couldn\u2019t be more different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two separate venues here that have courts that are so totally different. We call them the red and blue courts. We practiced the first two days on the red courts which are crazy slick. Probably the slickest I\u2019ve ever seen. Today (Saturday) we went to the blue courts. We were the first to play on them since they just finished them the day before. Apparently, we weren\u2019t supposed to play on them but we just went on anyway. They are quite slow and generally vastly better. It\u2019ll be really difficult to switch back and forth, as I\u2019m sure that\u2019s going to happen a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like Winkfield, Race also mentioned the heavy downpour Majuro is currently experience right smack at the start of the Micro Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of rain has chased us off of practice twice and it rained wildly again today (Saturday) although we got our training in this morning. Nobody including the Marshallese tennis president really knows how we\u2019re going to fit a 10-day competition into four days. Lydia (Tan) and I spent some time on Saipan trying to figure it out. We have a plan to do almost all short sets, but if it rains like it has the last three days there\u2019s every chance that the tennis event will be a complete disaster and it won\u2019t be able to be completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Race said under these circumstances, players even in the best scenario may have to play six matches per day which is not only unheard of but extremely unsafe from a health perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly whoever made the schedule had no idea what they were doing. Oh well. We\u2019ll try our best to roll with the punches. I hope our players can get through it okay. No matter what happens we\u2019ll bring medals back home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The CNMI\u2019s Kean Pajarillaga, center, and Justin Ma, right, pose with their gold and bronze medals after the men\u2019s 1,650-yard freestyle of the 2024 Micronesian Games at the Kwajalein Pool in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The CNMI\u2019s Kean Pajarillaga, center, and Justin Ma, right, pose with their gold and bronze medals after the men\u2019s 1,650-yard freestyle of the 2024 Micronesian Games at the Kwajalein Pool in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The mixed mixed 400-yard freestyle relay team of Maria Batallones, Isaiah Aleksenko, Frances Raho, and Kouki Watanabe on the podium with Pohnpei and Palau swimmers.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The mixed 200-yard freestyle relay team of Kean Pajarillaga, Maria Guerrero, Isaiah Aleksenko, and Shoko Litulumar on the podium with Palau and Marshall Islands swimmers.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

CNMI National Beach Volleyball Team players getting ready to train last Friday.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CNMI National Swimming Team made immediate waves by bagging four gold medals in Day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409796","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=409796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}