Kosuke Kitajima has cleared the first hurdle in his defence of the Olympic breaststroke titles he won in Athens: in 59.67, the 100m crown was his at nationals for a ninth time, the meet in Tokyo's Tatsumi International Pool doubling as trials for Beijing.

Also through were Olympic bronze medallists Tomomi Morita, Yuta Suenaga, Junichi Miyashita on the men's side, and Olympic bronze medallist Yuko Nakanishi and Yuka Kato on the women's side.

Suenaga followed Kitajima home in 1:00.72, locking out Makoto Yamashita, on 1:01.16. The Olympic champion clocked 59.66 in semis yesterday and fell just shy of his national record of 59.53sec twice. He has now broken the minute 11 times, all between that best, from Montreal 2005, and 59.98, which marked his first sub-minute moment, back in semis at the 2003 world championships.

'I was under heavy pressure to set a new national record. If I could, I would race it again,' Kitajima told reporters on the scene after winning his ninth straight national 100m title. 'It was not a bad race. I must accept this time and then I'm going to concentrate on the 200 metres to swim my own race. The time was not good enough at all. It will be difficult to win the gold medal with this time. I must start to build myself up again towards the Olympics.'

Morita claimed the 100m backstroke crown, for a seventh time, in 54.03, ahead of Miyashita, on 54.37, shutting the door on Ryosuke Irie, third in 54.69. 'I feel these four years were really long. I managed to keep swimming. I'm thankful to be in this position,' said Morita, third at Athens 2004. 'This is only the starting line. My time is not good enough. I'd like to show the world that the Japanese swimmers are the fastest at the Olympics.' He has much work to do. Since clocking a best of 53.85 in April 2006, Morita has watched 10 men pass him on the all-time list on which he now sits at 13th. In the early days of this year alone, he is 7th fastest.

Nakanishi, third in the 200m in Athens 2004, set a national record of 58.52 to claim the 100m title and the Olympic berth for Beijing ahead of defending champion Kato, just 0.03sec adrift, while Doi was left to try again, on 58.65. Naganishi's best in 2007 was 59.46, while her new speed leaves her 12th in the world this year alone, with much yet to reveal itself.

'I know I'm in good form right now. Even though I was behind for most of the race, I was calm. I was confident. But I was surprised that I beat her,' Naganishi told reporters after overhauling Kato in the closing metres. 'I can now go into the 200m with a lot of confidence.'

The times in Japan, though solid, are, so far, not living up to the surge seen elsewhere in the past six to seven weeks in other waters around the globe. So far, for example, Kitajima would have been the only winner at British trials, after two of six days of racing.