Swim team in Fiji for Oceania Champs

After a two-night mini training camp in Japan, the CNMI national swimming team headed to Fiji on Wednesday, May 6, for the 2026 Oceania Swimming Championships from May 8-13, one of the top swimming meets in the Oceania region.

Major swimming nations, including Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii, are all competing in the meet.

The CNMI men’s team is made up of Juhn Tenorio, Isaiah Aleksenko, Kouki Watanabe, Justin Ma, Michael Miller, Moshe Sikkel, Richard Zhao, and Matthew Szefler.

The women’s team is made up of Maria Batallones, Nagisa Litulumar, Piper Raho, Nagi Tenorio, Sari Barman, Mia Camacho, and Maria Guerrero.

Heading into the championships, the team’s coach, Hiroyuki Kimura, said the goal is to advance to as many finals as possible while also seeing every swimmer achieve personal bests and break multiple CNMI records.

Despite the difficult timing as the islands continue recovering from Super Typhoon Sinlaku, the team is thankful for the chance to compete against some of the region’s top swimmers. Kimura said, “I believe we can show the world the high level of NMI swimming.”

The team also hopes their performances can bring encouragement back home in the midst of recovery, with Kimura saying, “We hope that the efforts of NMI swimmers will give courage to the people of the NMI.”