Amanos a World Apart on Land and in Water

Keiko and Kosuke Amano are the personification of the phrase, “Different strokes for different folks.”

There’s 17-year-old Keiko, a top-notch sprinter who took the fast lane to swimming success.

Then there’s 16-year-old Kosuke, a hard-working distance swimmer who took longer to develop but has begun to shine this year.

The sister-brother tandem has competed for the Ventura-based Buenaventura Swim Club and Villanova Prep School in Ojai for three years. They will participate in the Speedo Junior Championships West meet Tuesday through Aug. 5 in San Antonio.

“I don’t know if I’ll win, but I want to be competitive,” Kosuke said. “I just want to swim fast and have fun and make people know who I am.”

Keiko will be competing in junior nationals for the fifth time and Kosuke for the first time, placing the siblings’ competitive differences on display in a meet that serves as a qualifier for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Keiko qualified for the junior nationals in the 100-meter freestyle at 59.06 seconds and in the 200 freestyle in 2:05.76 last summer in Bakersfield.

“Keiko is definitely a sprinter,” said Rob Mirande, coach of the Buenaventura Swim Club. “She’s very talented. She’s got wonderful skills.”

Kosuke broke through at the Irvine Novaquatics/Southern California Swimming Southwest Conference Championships last weekend at Heritage Park Swim Complex in Irvine. He qualified for junior nationals in the 800 meters, which he won in 8:38.04, and in the 1500 with a second-place time of 16:31.55. He was third in the 200 in 1:58.76 and fourth in the 400 in 4:10.62, failing to qualify in those events.

“He can’t sprint to save his life,” Mirande said. “I don’t think he’s quite as talented as some other swimmers, but he’s one of the hardest workers in the group and he’s just improved dramatically. I think he’s just starting to come into his own.”

Last week’s results had Kosuke floating on air rather than water. The Amanos train four hours a day in morning and afternoon sessions at Oxnard High.

“This is kind of the payoff,” Kosuke said. “It’s a big boost. I really wanted to make [junior nationals] this time, and I knew I had to get faster.

“It was one of the best meets of my life. It makes it worth the while and the wait.”

The Amanos were among the top swimmers at the Southern Section Division III championships in May.

Keiko finished second in the 100-yard freestyle in 52.46 and was third in the 200 freestyle in 1:53.28. Kosuke placed fourth in the 500 freestyle in 4:40.27 and was fourth in the 200 freestyle in 1:44.92.

Keiko, a senior at Villanova Prep, accounted for all 33 points scored by the Wildcats’ girls’ team. Kosuke accounted for all of the boys’ team’s 30 points.

They have been the best swimmers on the Villanova Prep team since its inception two years ago, during Keiko’s sophomore year.

“During my first year there, I constantly was asking the athletic director, ‘Are we having a swim team? Are we having a swim team?’ ” she said. “Then finally we got one.”

If swimming was new to Villanova Prep, a parochial school with fewer than 300 students in ninth through 12th grades, the campus was even newer to the Amanos.

“My junior high had 600 people in two grades, so when I switched to Villanova it was kind of a big change,” Keiko said. “And you go to liturgies. But we’re not religious at all. I didn’t know what was going on. I wasn’t used to it.”

The Amanos adjusted, as they had 10 years ago.

The Japanese natives moved from Takarazuka to Camarillo in April, 1990, and the family moved to Ventura in 1997.

“They’re much different,” Keiko said, comparing Japan to the U.S. “In Japan, there’s a lot of people and not much room. Everything’s more compact and concentrated. Ventura is so much more spread out.”

The family’s move to the U.S. came two years after Keiko and Kosuke were introduced to swimming.

“I barely knew how to do all four strokes,” Keiko said. “But then we came here and gradually got better and started competing.”

Now, the Amanos wouldn’t know what to do without swimming.

“It takes a lot of time,” Kosuke said. “You don’t have a lot of free time, but it’s worth it. The friends you have on the swim team are good friends. They’re the first ones you see in the morning and the last ones you see at night.”