Five swimmers from the Marshalls have been training to swim at two different FINA World Championships this summer, one of which started this past weekend.
Colleen Furgeson, Annie Hepler and Phillip Kinono are in Budapest, Hungary to swim at the 17th FINA World Championships that started 23 July. Each swimmer will be competing in two events.
All three swimmers swam for years in the Marshalls and have represented the Marshall Islands in international meets. Hepler represented the Marshall Islands in the 2012 Olympics and Furgeson in the 2016 Olympics. Kinono traveled to Guam for an international competition and has recently re-joined Marshall Islands Swim Federation (MISF) to resume competition meets.
Kayla Hepler and Daniel Ranis have been training all year to attend the 6th FINA Junior Swimming Championships, in Indianapolis, Indiana in late August. Both swimmers are lifelong residents of Kwajalein Atoll and have been swimming since grade school.
In order to compete in the Junior Championships, the age of the swimmers must be between 14-17 years old.
Read more about this in the July 28, 2017 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.