TOKYO (AFP) - Ryuichi Shibata and Takeshi Matsuda defeated Olympic and world silver medallist Takashi Yamamoto at the Japanese national swimming championships on Friday to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
Shibata clocked one minute 55.57 seconds for his third straight victory in the men's 200-metre butterfly, followed by two-time champion Matsuda in 1:55.66 and seven-time champion Yamamoto in 1:56.43.
"The time was not so good, but I really wanted to qualify for the Olympics, so I'm really happy about it," said a jubilant Shibata.
"I felt very good in the warm-up and I thought I should keep my energy for the later half so that I don't slow down. It would have been much better if the time was a little bit better," he added.
Matsuda said: "I had aimed to win the title and mark a better time, so I was disappointed. My time is much slower than the top swimmers of the world. I must build up myself again for the Olympics."
Friday saw three more swimmers clear the minimum standard for qualification with Takuro Fujii, Ken Takakuwa and Asami Kitagawa all earning their first Olympic appearances.
Fujii timed 2:00.30 for his first title in the men's 200m individual medley beating two-time defending champion Takakuwa, who was in 2:00.37, and dual Asian Games gold medallist Hidemasa Sano into third in 2:00.89.
"It feels great, the greatest, but the time is no good at all when I compete against top swimmers. I must learn how I can survive when we are swimming at the last spurt," said Fujii.
Takakuwa said: "I was behind Takuro and Hidemasa when I turned for the freestyle, so I kicked the fence hard, thinking I must catch up with them. My time was not my personal best, but at least I cleared the bottom line."
"But this is only a starting line for the Olympics. I'm going to prepare for the Olympics from the first step, because I can not cope with the world with this time," he added.
Kitagawa won her third straight national title in the women's 200m individual medley in 2:13.29, beating Izumi Kato in 2:14.82 and former champion Misa Amano third in 2:15.46.
"I'm really happy," she said after the race. "It was a race against the time, I didn't care for the other swimmers. When I looked at the board, I was really happy."
Nobody qualified for the men's and women's 50m freestyle with Masayuki Kishida winning his first men's title in 22.69 and Kaori Yamada winning the women's in 25.71 for a third year running.
