TOKYO, Feb 23: Athens Olympic bronze medallists Reiko Nakamura and Yuko Nakanishi issued an Olympic warning by setting new world records at the Japan Open short course swimming championships on Saturday.

Nakamura clocked two minutes 3.24 seconds to win the women’s 200-metre backstroke, beating the previous mark of 2:03.62 set by American Natalie Coughlin in New York in November 2001.

Nakanishi timed 2:03.12 to win the women’s 200m butterfly, beating the 2:03.53 set by Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland in Debrecen, Hungary, last December.

A total of two world records and 12 national records, including two in the heats, were broken in the championships,

tune-up races for the national championships in April for places in the Beijing Olympics.

The records of Nakamura and Nakanishi outshined dual Olympic champions and former world record holder Kosuke Kitajima, who won the men’s 100 metre breaststroke in a new national mark of 57.62.

“A new world record ... I was close. But considering my current condition, I must be satisfied,” said Kitajima, who was recovering from the flu.

“I wanted to set a new world record before they did. But I was able to set my personal best today, so I’m going to set another personal best tomorrow,”added Kitajima, who also set a new national mark in the morning.

Yuka Sato, Tomomi Morita and Sato Hisayoshi also set new national records twice winning the women’s 500m butterfly in 25.95, men’s 50m and 200m backstroke in 23.88 and 1:53.01, and men’s 50m freestyle and 100m individual medley in 21:94 and 52.91, respectively.

Shogo Hihara set 1:44.72 to win the men’s 200m freestyle, while Asami Kitagawa set 1:06.18 to win the women’s 100m breaststroke for the remaining two national records.—AFP