Eriko Ishino won the women's 3,000 meters in a meet-record time at the speed skating national championships on Wednesday and Maki Tabata took second as both all but secured berths at the Turin Winter Olympics.
Ishino, who won her first overall title at last year's meet, came home in a time of 4 minutes, 10.05 seconds ahead of Tabata, who clocked 4:10.71, with Eriko Seo taking third in 4:13.53 at the M-wave ice arena in Nagano.
Tabata, denied a seventh consecutive overall title last year by Ishino, finished third in the 500 won by Shihomi Shinya and moved into the overall lead on the first day of the competition.