2008 JAPAN OPEN SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING: Harada, Suzuki splash to championship

Saho Harada and Emiko Suzuki shrugged off a shaky showing in the preliminaries to win the duet finals of the Japan Open for the third straight year Monday at Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center.

The duo put in a near-flawless performance to end a trying weekend on a high note, scoring 96.667 points for an easy victory.

Harada complained Sunday she so was burned out from the taxing Olympic qualifying campaign that ended on April 19 that she lost 2 kilograms. Mentally and emotionally drained, Harada looked out of sorts during the prelims, later blaming some clear mistakes on the complexity of the choreography, which she insisted needed simplifying ahead of the Olympics.

All smiles Monday, Harada said she would relish the win and use it as a confidence booster ahead of the Olympics, where Japan finished runner-up in the duet and team programs in 2000 and 2004.

"We came here with a different mind-set today," Harada said. "I haven't seen replays of (the preliminaries), but even though we were tired, we tried to put it out of our heads and give 100 percent today. Our routine is what it is, there's no use complaining, we've got to find the strength and do it."

Aside from one slight miscue in which the swimmers' legs were marginally out of sync midway through their routine, Harada and Suzuki aced what was easily the most intricate and demanding program of the day.

Suzuki echoed Harada's evaluation of their performance and said it was the pair's duty to live up to the high expectations set by those before them.

"I feel the same way as (Harada). We have a great chance but we need to give it more, dig deeper, and make the most of it," Suzuki said. "Japan's built a name for itself in this event an it's our job to meet or exceed those expectations. We'll do our best."

Because tournament rules place stronger weight on the top finishers from each participating country than the best scores, Canada finished second (third overall), with Kazakhstan coming in third (fourth overall). Japan's Saya and Maya Kimura posted the second best score of 90.167.

The 25-year-old Harada also won her second consecutive solo title earlier in the day and earned further glory with the Japan national team, which took the team honors. Harada was a reserve for the team Monday, but earned a medal after participating in the technical routine on Saturday.

Harada's substitute, Hiromi Kobayashi, said there was little the team as a whole could do to get better ahead of the Olympics, but that improvement was the responsibility of each swimmer individually.

"We did better than yesterday, which was our goal today," Kobayashi said. "We all have our roles and each one of us has promised to raise our individual levels that much higher so we can compete for gold at the Olympics."

National team coach Miyuki Ogawa was a little less enthusiastic, saying there was room for improvement in two areas in particular.

"We need to work on space issues and getting quicker," Ogawa said. "The difficulty of the routine is such that it will be hard to speed things up, but we have to find a way. As for the space issues, we need to be more compact, there is too much room at times between the swimmers."

China finished in second, 6.500 points behind Japan, with Egypt placing third.

Harada won back-to-back Japan Open solo titles in convincing fashion, finishing with 96.334 points, 6.750 ahead of her nearest rival, Yumi Adachi, and 7.834 ahead of Jennifer Knobbs, who finished fifth overall.

Knobbs, a Canadian, was handed the runner-up medal and Yoo-Jung Rhee of South Korea finished third (10th overall).(IHT/Asahi: May 6,2008)