2 gold, 2 silver for Isaiah; records for girls, boys relay

From Florida to Fiji, Isaiah Aleksenko’s belated birthday gifts were two gold and two silver medals, while the NMI boys and girls relay teams also rewrote longstanding national records at the 2026 Oceania Swimming Championships.

Competing at one of Oceania’s top swimming meets, the boys and girls in blue brought the heat in the pool against powerhouses from the host country Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, New Caledonia, and Samoa—to name a few.

Aleksenko won gold in the 50m backstroke on Sunday, May 10, after swimming a personal record time of 26.40 seconds. He followed it up with another gold medal in the 100m butterfly just today, Monday, May 11, with a time of 23.64 seconds while also adding two silver medals during the meet, which continues through May 13.

Despite the strong performances against the powerhouses, Aleksenko said he is still recovering after recently being involved in a crash that kept him out of the water for an extended period of time. “After the crash, I wasn’t able to swim for a really long time or do anything for a long time, so just last week I started practicing again,” he said. “I’m still swimming as I recover from the crash and thinking of this as more of a practice and recovery.”

When asked how the competition was, he said, “Honestly not bad. I’m happy I’m at least back in the water.” As for swimming with his teammates and representing the CNMI again, Aleksenko said it meant a lot to him. “I missed them so much and I’m happy to be back,” he said.

Aleksenko also dedicated his wins to “God, my mom, my family, my coach Hiro, his wife Mrs. Yuko, my teammates, my friends, the NMI, and anyone who supported me.”

Meanwhile, teammate Juhn Tenorio also reached the finals of the 50m event and swam head-to-head against Aleksenko. Tenorio narrowly missed the podium after finishing fourth, just 0.03 seconds behind third place.

Official times for the girls’ 200x4 freestyle relay, the 100x4 freestyle relay, and the boys relay were not available at press time.

The rest of the NMI team competing in Fiji includes Kouki Watanabe, Justin Ma, Michael Miller, Moshe Sikkel, Richard Zhao, Matthew Szefler, Maria Batallones, Nagisa Litulumar, Piper Raho, Nagi Tenorio, Sari Barman, Mia Camacho, and Maria Guerrero.