And so the assault on the record book continues apace: In Tokyo, Reiko Nakamura and Yuko Nakanishi broke world short-course records at the Japan short-course championships.

Nakamura shaved 0.38sec off the 2001 standard of Natalie Coughlin (USA) in the 200m backstroke for a 2:03.24 victory.

Splits:

Nakamura: 29.11; 1:00.25, 1:31.79; 2:03.24.
Coughlin: 29.49; 1:00.96; 1:32.70;. 2:03.62.

Nakanishi sliced 0.41sec off the 200m butterfly standard of Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL), with a 2:03.12. The Pole set the record at the European s/c champs in Debrecen, Hungary, in December last year.

Splits:

Nakanishi: 28.25; 59.50; 1:31.26; 2:03.12
Jedrzejczak: 28.56, 59.51, 1?31.06; 2:03.53.

In the 800m freestyle, Olympic champion Ai Shibata clocked 8:24.49, while the best of the men saw Tomomi Morita win the 200m backstroke in 1:53.01, to Takashi Nakano's 1:53.90, and Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima go a 57.62 100m breaststroke.