Fumie Suguri prevailed in the women's free skate for her third title and Yosuke Takeuchi came from behind to take his second crown at the figure skating National Championships on Sunday.
Suguri, who led after Saturday's short program, turned in a flawless performance at Namihaya Dome in Osaka Prefecture to retain her title and clinch a spot in the Salt Lake City Olympics in February.
"It's wonderful to be a part of the Olympics, but I'm happier with the fact that I was able to perform exactly the way I do during practice," said Suguri, who finished seventh in last season's World Championships.
The 20-year-old Waseda University student outclassed her rivals with a solid four-minute program, beating Shizuka Arakawa, a representative for host Japan at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, into second place and up-and-coming Miki Ando into third. In the men's field, Takeuchi, third after the short program, cleanly landed a quadruple jump while performing to the theme from "Tarzan." He failed in his triple axel attempt.
The national title, his first in three seasons, gave Takeuchi one of Japan's two berths at the upcoming Olympics. Nagano Olympian Yamato Tamura and Makoto Okazaki, who took the lead after the short program, made costly mistakes in jumps and finished second and third, respectively.
Takeshi Honda and Yoshie Onda had already been named to Japan's Olympic team earlier this month and did not compete in the National Championships. In ice dancing, Rie Arikawa and Kenji Miyamoto won their first title and will be added to the Olympic delegation if Japan earns a spot in the discipline.