Taiyo Akimaru was truly one with the water as he swam to a podium finish with a bronze in the 200m individual medley event on the last day of the Oceania Swimming Championships 2024 held at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, in Southport, Queensland, Australia last Wednesday.

He capped the CNMI team’s stint Down Under and brought home the team’s only hardware as he finished with a time of 2:18.17 for the bronze medal in the individual medley event. The IM consists of four strokes—butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.

Gold went to powerhouse Australia’s Grayson Doig who clocked in at 2:06.60, and silver was Micronesian neighbor Guam’s Israel Poppe at 2:14.01.

Prior to his last event of the Championships that night, he broke the CNMI 50m breaststroke 17-18 age group record with a finals time and PB of 31.51 seconds. He also set a new PB in the 50m freestyle with a time of 25.41 seconds and reached the finals.

Fellow NMI swimmers also capped the championships with personal best times in their last events. Piper Raho set a new PB in the 50m freestyle with a sub 30 second swim—29.99 seconds.

Then, Savita Sikkel recorded a 31.30 seconds PB in the 50m freestyle; Nagi Tenorio set a new PB in the 50m freestyle with a time of 36.86 seconds; and Michael Miller reset his PB in the 200m IM with a 2:34.80.

For 18-year-old Akimaru’s bronze medal swim, he said, “During the swim, I was thinking how fast I will need to go every stroke and just trying to beat people next to me. At first, I was too tired to even celebrate and was exhausted from my swim but after that I felt super hyped and when I saw my team's happy faces, it also made me happy!”

He said he just tried to keep a long and steady stroke for the first 50m, attack and go fast in the next 50m because it’s his worst. For the third stroke, he just tried to keep his speed up and the last one, he gave everything he had left.

“I had a feeling I would do well in this event, but I didn’t think of placing!” he exclaimed on winning bronze.

As for Miller who broke several PBs throughout the championships, he said, “It felt astounding to break my PBs. I fancy this trip since the food was scrumptious and I felt I was able to accomplish my goals.”

Sikkel, for her part, said, “I am very thankful to have been able to swim pb's through this competition. I am grateful for my coaches and team.”

And for Tenorio, she said, “It felt really good and relieving to break my PB because that was something I was working towards. The competition was fun, and I made friends with many people.”

Last Sunday and Monday, Moshe Sikkel and Piper Raho broke CNMI 13-14 age group records.

Moshe set the new time in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:07.40 and recorded a new time in the 50m at 30.31 seconds. Raho restarted the 50m backstroke record with her time of 34.69 seconds.

With the seven swimmers were coaches Richard Sikkel and Christian Villacrusis.