Kitajima On Song: 2:08.84 Best 200 Breast
2008-04-19
Craig Lord
lympic champion Kosuke Kitajima threw down the gauntlet to his 200m breaststroke rivals with a 2:08.84 blast in the 200m breaststroke at the Japanese trials in Tokyo; Naganishi, on 2:06.38 200 'fly JPN record, and Shibata made the grade

Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima threw down the gauntlet to his 200m breaststroke rivals with a 2:08.84 blast - the second effort in history inside 2:09 after Brendan Hansen - in the 200m breaststroke at the Japanese trials in Tokyo. The 25-year-old's effort earned him a second straight and sixth overall national crown over the distance.

Yuta Suenaga claimed the second berth for Beijing, in 2:10.17, with Ryo Tateishi locked out, on 2:10.33. Kitajimas was inside world record pace until the last length.

'I knew I was faster than the world record pace at the 150m point. I needed to make a little bit more effort to break it,' Kitajima told reporters after his race. 'It will be a competition of standings rather than a record in the Beijing Olympics. Hopefully, I can put up the Japanese flag on the centre pole (the winner's flagpole). This victory gave me a lot of momentum.' The all-time top 10 - with five times from this year and Barrowman still hanging on from 1992, now reads:


2:08.50 Hansen USA
2:08.84 Kitajima JPN
2:09.51 Rickard AUS
2:09.52 Komornikov RUS
2:09.64 Falko RUS
2:09.74 Dale Oen NOR
2:09.85 Duboscq FRA
2:10.16 Barrowman USA 1992
2:10.32 Gilchrist GBR
2:10.40 Moses USA

Five more swimmers added their names or more events to the Japan squad.

Olympic 200m butterfly bronze medallist Yuko Nakanishi raced to a national record of 2:06.38 to win her specialist event at nationals for a seventh time, beating Natsumi Hoshi into second in 2:07.28, with Natsuki Akiyama shut out, on 2:07.75. 'I was a bit disappointed, because I had targeted to swim under 2:06.00, but I'm going to do it in the Olympics. My goal in Beijing is to get a better medal than I did in Athens,' said Nakanishi, 26.

Olympic champion Ai Shibata will defend her 800m freestyle crown in China but has a great deal of work to do if she is to be considered a serious medal hope, let alone title contender. She took the race in 8:28.69 as sole qualifier ahead of a Yurie Yano, on 8:34.04, and Maiko Fujino, on 8:34.17.

'I did my best believing that I can go to Beijing if I do my very best. I was shocked when I failed to qualify for the 400 metres, so I was determined to do it in the 800 metres at any cost,' said Shibata. 'I can not say I can win the gold medal again in the Olympics, but I'm going to steady myself to do my best performance there.'

Ryosuke Irie and Takashi Nakano claimed the 200m backstroke berths, Irie retaining his title in 1:57.33 ahead of Nakano's 1:58.22.