Japanese Olympians Shine at Collegiate Championships -- September 9, 2004

By Hideki Mochizuki

KANAGAWA, Japan, September 9. DOUBLE Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima repeated his breaststroke triumphs at the Japanese National Collegiate Championships, held in a 50-meter course in Kanaagawa Prefecture, September 3-5.

Kitajima breezed to victory with times of 1:00.32 for the 100 meter breaststroke and 2:10.63 for the 200.

In other highlights:

* AI Shibata, gold medalist in the women's 800m freestyle in Athens, won both distance events here, recording times of 4:11.56 for the 400 and 8:34.70 for the 800.

* TOMOMI Morita, Olympic 100m backstroke bronze medalist, won the event in 54.32 seconds here and also took first place in the 200m backstroke in 1:59.02.

* REIKO Nakamura, 200m backstroke bronze medalist in Athens, won the same event in 2.10.30. She also took the 100m backstroke in 1.00.97.

* DAISUKE Hosokawa set the only Japanese national record, clocking 50.13 seconds for the 100m freestyle.