Saipan Swim Club coach Jacoby Winkfield, second row left, and his swimmers pose for a photo at the departure area of the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport yesterday morning before they head to Taiwan for a tournament this weekend. (Contributed Photo)
Eight Saipan Swim Club members left for Taiwan yesterday morning to compete in the 2017 TAS Tigersharks Invitational Swim this weekend.
Siblings Kento and Taiyo Akimaru, brothers Lennosuke and Jinnosuke Suzuki, David Boyer, Sophia Gauran, Anthony Camacho-Deleon Guerrero, and Jinju Thompson will debut in the short course meet (25m) organized by Taipei American School. SSC head coach Jacoby Winkfield accompanied the eight-member squad to the Nov. 3 to 5 competition that will take place at the Ira B. Weislow Aquatics Center at Taipei City.
In Taiwan, SSC members will be racing against swimmers from the hosts, Japan, Singapore, China, and Hong Kong. Besides TAS, Morrison Academy is the other group representing Taipei in the three-day meet, while Hong Kong has the Chinese International School. Completing the list of teams are China’s Concordia International School, Lucy Water World, Shanghai International Swim Club, Western Academy of Beijing, and Wellington College International Shanghai, Japan’s Yokosuka Seahawks and Okinawa Dolphins, and Singapore’s Suzhou Singapore International Schools.
The meet has age group competitions in U8, 9 to 10, 11 to 12, 13 to 14, and 15 and over divisions and each swimmer can enter a maximum of five individual events and two relays. SSC members’ events have yet to be announced at press time, however they are expected to join in all four sessions of the tournament.
Session 1 of the meet will take place this Friday and will have three events—mixed 11 and over’s 400m freestyle, mixed U10’s 200m individual medley, and the mixed 11 and over’s 200m backstroke. For Session 2 this Saturday morning, the events are 100m butterfly, 100m IM, 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m and 200m breaststroke, and 50m and 100m backstroke. In the afternoon, Session 3 will have the 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly, 4x25m freestyle relay (U8), the 4x50m freestyle relay for the remaining age groups, 100m butterfly, 100, backstroke, and 200m freestyle. In the last session this Sunday, swimmers will race in the 100m freestyle, 200m and 100m IM, 100m breaststroke, 4x25m medley relay (U8), and the 4x50m medley relay for the remaining divisions.
The Top 3 swimmers (total points scored) in each age group will be awarded trophies, while the Top 3 in each event will get medals. The Top 3 visiting teams will get championship trophies.
The post SSC swimmers off to Taiwan meet appeared first on Saipan News, Headlines, Events, Ads | Saipan Tribune.