Hitomi Niiya

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Hitomi Niiya
Sōja, Okayama, Japan
Sport
Country Japan
SportWomen's athletics
Achievements and titles
Personal bests3000 m: 9:09.27
5000m: 14:55.83
10,000 m: 30:20.44
Half marathon: 66:38 NR
Marathon: 2:19:24 (Houston 2023)
Medal record
Asian Championships
Silver medal – second place 2011 Kobe 5000 m
Silver medal – second place 2019 Doha 10,000 m
World Youth Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2005 Marrakesh 5000 m

Hitomi Niiya (新谷 仁美, Niiya Hitomi, born 26 February 1988) is a Japanese professional

long-distance runner who competes in track, cross country running and marathon races. Niiya competed for Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is a two-time silver medallist at the Asian Athletics Championships and has represented Japan three times at the World Athletics Championships (2011, 2013, 2019). She represents Team Toyota Industries
in national competition.

She formed part of the Japanese junior team at the

Houston Half Marathon.[1]

Career

Youth

Niiya attended Kōjōkan Senior High School and began competing in

Chiba Cross Country,[3] Niiya made her international debut at the 2004 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and her nineteenth-place finish helped the Japanese junior women to the team bronze medal.[4] She took a consecutive victory in Chiba in February 2005,[3] thus returning to the world event the following year. She improved to thirteenth place and helped the Japanese team to another bronze alongside Akane Wakita and Yurika Nakamura.[5] The 2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Marrakesh provided her the venue for her first international individual medal, as she claimed the bronze in the 3000 metres.[6] That October, she won the 3000 m at the 2005 National Sports Festival of Japan in Okayama, being the only local athlete to win at the festival. At the end of that year she won at the inter-high school championships and ran the second fastest time ever for a Japanese high school student in the 5000 metres, taking her title with a time of 15:28.70 minutes.[7]

Niiya repeated both her thirteenth placing and team bronze at the 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships junior race,[8] but began to move towards ekiden road running competitions that year.

Senior debut

She represented Japan in the Yokohama International Women's Ekiden and just edged past Ethiopia's Ameba Denboba on the final leg to lift Japan into the top three.[9] After graduating from high school she chose to focus on running full-time, working under coach Yoshio Koide, who trained Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi. The rebooted Tokyo Marathon in 2007 did not invite any elite level women and Niiya filled the void, entering the race among the thousands of public runners, and won the women's race, recording a time of 2:31:01 hours for her debut over the distance.[10]

In March 2008, she debuted in the half marathon, finishing with a time of 1:11:41 hours to take third place behind Mara Yamauchi and Rie Takayoshi at the Matsue Ladies Half Marathon.[11] She competed in her second marathon that August but found herself behind Yukari Sahaku (also coached by Koide) and finished in second place at the Hokkaido Marathon.[12] Her year ended on a high note as she helped Toyota Industries to their first title at the All Japan Corporate Team Women's Ekiden Championships.[13]

Her third marathon came in March 2009 at the

Nagoya Marathon – she was leading at 30 km and although she achieved a personal best time of 2:30:58, she slowed in the latter stages and finished eighth.[14] At the Oda Memorial in April she won the 5000 m with a personal best time of 15:23.27 minutes.[15] The following year, a third-place finish in Fukuoka gained her a place on the senior team for the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where she finished in 31st place.[8][16]

Her 2011 season began with two domestic victories at the Chiba and

Chiba International Ekiden in November she ran a stage record on the final leg to help Japan to second place behind Kenya.[19]

The

Japanese National Games and the Japanese Championships that year.[24]

She won the Fukuoka cross country title for a third year running in February 2013.[25]

Niiya competed in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow on 11 August 2013. Taking the lead early on, she led for the majority of the race but was outsprinted in the last 600m eventually finishing fifth in a personal best time of 30:56.70.

Injury and return

On 31 January 2014, at a press conference, Niiya officially announced her retirement from running professionally, citing her foot injury as the cause. In November 2012, she was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis in her right foot and had decided then that the 2013 World Championships would be her last professional race. When asked to reflect back on her past career as a runner, she said, "Once I'm a granny I might think, 'Man that was hard,' but right now I have nothing but good memories" and that her favorite memory was winning the National High School Ekiden Championships while attending Kōjōkan High School. When asked about her future away from the sport, she said, "It's a complete blank. I can't imagine what I'll be doing. I can't do anything useful for society, but I will completely cut off connection with the world of athletics." She cried with her mother and left these final words for future athletes: "Always do what you think is the right thing no matter what anybody tells you."[26][27]

She returned to competition in 2018 following rehabilitation for her injury and became the first Japanese winner at the

Houston Half Marathon by winning in a Japanese record time of 66:38, the fastest time ever by a woman born outside of Kenya or Ethiopia. She won by a minute-and-a-half, and beat the previous Japanese half-marathon record by 48 seconds.[1] In January 2023 Niiya won the Houston Marathon in a time of 2:19:24, almost eclipsing the Japanese record of 2:19:12 set in 2005 by Mizuki Noguchi
. She won by six minutes.

International competitions

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2005 World Youth Championships Marrakesh, Morocco 3rd 3000 m 9:10.34
2011 Asian Championships Kobe, Japan 2nd 5000 m 15:34.19
World Championships Daegu, South Korea 13th 5000 m 15:41.67
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 10th (heats) 5000 m 15:10.20
9th 10,000 m 30:59.19
2013 World Championships Moscow, Russia 5th 10,000 m 30:56.70
2019 Asian Championships Doha, Qatar 2nd 10,000 m 31:22.63
World Championships Doha, Qatar 11th 10,000 m 31:12.99
2021 Olympic Games
Tokyo, Japan
 21st 10,000 m 32:23.87
2022 Tokyo Marathon
Tokyo, Japan
 7th 42.195 km 2:21:17
Houston Marathon Houston, United States 1st 42.195 km 2:19:24

National titles

Major Wins

Personal bests

References

  1. ^ a b Gault, Jonathan (19 January 2020). Comeback Queen Hitomi Niiya Breaks Japanese Record (66:38), Jemal Yimer Wins (59:25), Big American Depth at Houston Half Marathon. LetsRun. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  2. ^ Hitomi Niiya (in Japanese). Toyota. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  3. ^
    IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  4. ^ 2004 World XC Championships – Junior race. WJAH. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  5. ^ 2005 World XC Championships – Junior race. WJAH. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  6. ^ 2005 World Youth Championships Archived 12 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine. WJAH. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  7. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  8. ^
    IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  9. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  10. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  11. ^ Mara Yamauchi wins Matsue Ladies Half Marathon. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  12. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  13. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  14. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  15. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  16. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  17. IAAF
    . Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  18. ^ 2011 Asian Championships – Women's 5000 m. 2011 Kobe. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  19. ^ Nakamura, Ken (23 November 2011). Teenagers Mwikya and Mokua lead Kenya to Chiba Ekiden victory. IAAF. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  20. ^ Nakamura, Ken (15 January 2012). Osaka wins women’s Inter-Prefectural Ekiden in Kyoto. IAAF. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  21. ^ Krishnan, Ram. Murali (25 March 2012). Bahrain dominates at Asian XC champs. IAAF. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  22. ^ Larner, Brett (22 April 2012). Mathathi and Niiya Run 10000 m World Leaders at Hyogo Relay Carnival. Japan Running News. Retrieved 28 April 2012
  23. ^ Hitomi Niiya Archived 3 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. London 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  24. ^ Nakamura, Ken (11 June 2012). Japan announces Olympic team as national champs conclude. IAAF. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  25. ^ Nakamura, Ken (23 February 2013). Ndirangu and Thuku continue winning streak in Fukuoka. IAAF. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  26. ^ Hitomi Niiya at Retirement Press Conference: "Nothing But Good Memories". Japan Running News. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  27. ^ Olympian Hitomi Niiya Announces Retirement. Japan Running News. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  28. ^ Johnson, Len (13 December 2018). Niiya and McSweyn take Zatopek: 10 victories in Melbourne. World Athletics. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  29. ^ Hitomi Niiya. World Athletics. Retrieved 22 January 2020.

External links

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