Two-time double Olympic breaststroke champion Kosuke Kitajima won the 100 meters in a U.S. swimming Grand Prix series meet Friday.
The Japanese star touched the wall in 1 minute, 0.13 seconds as part of his warmup for the Olympic qualifying national championships in Tokyo next month.
"I feel good about the time," Kitajima said. "I've come into a meet with strong determination like this for the first time in a while. I'm trying to raise my level toward the national championships."
"I have to build my pace to compete against the world's top swimmers at the (London) Olympics. I think I'm still at 10 or 20 percent of my Olympic preparation," he added.
Kitajima had also topped the preliminary round.
On the opening day of the three-day meet, Michael Phelps romped to victory in the 200-meter freestyle in 1:45.69. Masayuki Kishida was fifth in the 100 butterfly in 53.54.