Highly touted Shingo Suetsugu coasted to victory in a preliminary race of the men's 200 meters on Friday, the first day of the three-day national track and field championships in Yokohama.
Competing at International Stadium Yokohama, the 23-year-old Suetsugu, last fall's Asian Games gold medalist in the same event, clocked 20.58 seconds to advance to Saturday's final. The championships double as a qualifier for August's World Championships in Paris.
Both Suetsugu and Hisashi Miyazaki, who clocked 20.53 in another preliminary race, cleared the highest A-class standards for the August meet.
In other competitions, Masumi Ono leaped 4.21 meters to set a national record in the women's pole vault.