Jiro Miki booked his ticket to his summer's Athens Olympics when he powered home to win the men's 400 meters individual medley final in a national record time on the first day of the swimming national championships Tuesday.
Miki clocked 4 minutes, 14.79 seconds at Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center to easily beat Susumu Tabuse, who took second in 4:15.74.
Takahiro Mori was in third in 4:17.85. Tabuse also earned a place on the Japan team for Athens as did Sachiko Yamada, who claimed the women's 400 meters freestyle title for the sixth year in a row.
Yamada prevailed with a time of 4:07.62 while Ai Shibata also earned a berth to Greece in finishing in a personal best time of 4:07.71.