Two Tongan swimmers, Finau Ohuafi and Charissa Panuve, set new national records in the 25m pool competition at the TSA-AIMG Time Trials in Bangkok, Thailand on October 22 – 24.

Finau set three new records in freestyle and one in butterfly events while Charisa set two new records in freestyle events.

Tonga Swimming President, Suliana Afu told Matangi Tonga both swimmers are currently on a swimming scholarship at the FINA Thanyapura Phuket Training Centre in Thailand.

“Finau has been on a FINA Scholarship from 2019 until Jan 2021 in Thailand. He was also awarded with an Olympic Solidarity Scholarship from 2019 until August 2021."

Charissa is on a FINA scholarship for one year.

“Tonga Swimming are very happy with both their performances proving the benefits of attending high performance training centres ..to help with their swimming career,” said Suliana.

“We wish them to continue to stay safe and well and hope to see more personal bests and new national records broken in the future.”

Suliana said the new national records set by both swimmers in the Short Course 25M Pool competition are:

Finau Ohuafi

•   50 Freestyle - New National Record – 24.25
• 100 Freestyle - New National Record – 52.77
• 200 Freestyle - New National Record – 1.58.15
• 100 Butterfly - New National Record – 57.75

Charissa Pane

• 400 Freestyle - New National Record – 5.11.72
• 800 Freestyle - New National Record – 11.18.70

Previous short course records, (Wikipedia):