OSAKA, Japan — Mao Asada won the Japan women's national figure skating championships yesterday to secure a place on the Vancouver Olympic team.

Asada, first after the short program, began the free skate with a triple axel and was solid the rest of the way to finish with 204.62 points for her fourth straight national title.

"I'm glad that I had no major mistakes today," Asada said. "I was just trying to concentrate on my program and wasn't thinking about a fourth title but I did have the Olympics in mind."

Akiko Suzuki also booked a trip to Vancouver after finishing second with 195.90 points, 0.17 points ahead of Yukari Nakano.

Miki Ando, who had already secured a place in the Olympics, was fourth with 185.44 points.

Asada, 19, had struggled in the International Skating Union's Grand Prix series this season and was looking to re-establish herself as a gold medal contender at the Olympics with a strong performance at nationals.

Asada will make her Olympic debut four years after she was left out of the Turin Games due to the age limit despite impressive results in senior events, including a victory at the 2005 Grand Prix finals.

"It's been a long four years," Asada said. "The Olympics have been a goal of mine for a long time and I'm very relieved."

Suzuki moved up from fourth place after the short program with a solid free skate. Her only mistake came when she lost her footing after a triple loop.

Daisuke Takahashi wrapped up a place in the Olympics on Saturday by winning the men's event and will join Nobunari Oda and Takahiko Kozuka in Vancouver.

HOCKEY

FORSBERG ON SQUAD

Former NHL MVP Peter Forsberg is on defending champion Sweden's Olympic squad for the Vancouver Games.

The veteran center was selected for the 23-man Olympic team announced yesterday by coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson.

Forsberg has won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche and was the NHL's MVP in 2003. He now plays for Swedish team Modo but has dealt with nagging ankle and foot problems for several years.

RUSSIA LOADS UP

Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk are among the 14 NHL players on the 23-player Russia squad for the Vancouver Olympics.

Forwards Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit and Alexander Semin of Washington, defensemen Sergei Gonchar of Pittsburgh and Andrei Markov of Montreal, and goaltenders Evgeni Nabokov of San Jose and Ilya Bryzgalov of Phoenix were also selected.

SPEEDSKATING

DUTCH CHAMPS IN

Olympic women's 3,000-meter speedskating champion Ireen Wust qualified to race the 1,500 at the Vancouver Games and the men's 10,000 champion in Turin, Bob de Jong, qualified for the 5,000 yesterday at the Dutch Trials in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

Sven Kramer, the favorite to take gold in both the 5,000 and 10,000 in Vancouver, already has qualified.