April 20, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 13, 1429

TOKYO, April 19: Athens Olympic dual gold medallist Kosuke Kitajima threw down the gauntlet for the Beijing Olympics in August here on Saturday by setting a new national record.

The 25-year-old clocked two minutes 08.84sec to win his second straight and sixth overall men’s 200-metre breaststroke title at the national championships.

Yuta Suenaga finished second to also qualify for the Olympics in 2:10.17, ahead of Ryo Tateishi at third in 2:10.33.

Five more swimmers cleared the bottom line to qualify for the Olympics, including Athens 800m gold medallist Ai Shibata and 200m butterfly bronze medallist Yuko Nakanishi.

Shibata, who was in tears after missing the Olympics in the 400m, timed 8:28.69 to win the women’s 800m freestyle for a second year running and a third overall.

Yurie Yano was second in 8:34.04 and Maiko Fujino third in 3:34.17.

Nakanishi marked a new national record of 2:06.38 to win the women’s 200m butterfly for a seventh time, beating Natsumi Hoshi into second in 2:07.28 and Natsuki Akiyama into third in 2:07.75.

The other two Olympic seats were won by defending champion Ryosuke Irie and Takashi Nakano, with Irie marking 1:57.33 to beat Nakano into second in 1:58.22 in the men’s 200m backstroke.—AFP