is a Japanese professional

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

who competes in

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

and

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

races. Niiya competed for Japan at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She is a two-time silver medallist at the

Asian Athletics Championships The Asian Athletics Championships is an event organized by the Asian Athletics Association. History The competition courted controversy with the IAAF when political in-fighting arose after Israel was excluded from participation in 1977. That e ...

and has represented Japan three times at the

World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

(2011, 2013, 2019). She represents Team

Toyota Industries is a Japanese machine maker. Originally, and still actively (as of 2021), a manufacturer of automatic looms, it is the company from which Toyota Motor Corporation developed. It is the world's largest manufacturer of forklift trucks measured b ...

in national competition. She formed part of the Japanese junior team at the

IAAF World Cross Country Championships World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...

from 2004 to 2006, helping them to team medals each time. She also won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

over

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

at the 2005 World Youth Championships. Niiya won the 2007

Tokyo Marathon The is an annual marathon sporting event in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. It is a World Athletics Platinum Label marathon and one of the six World Marathon Majors. The latest edition of the race took place on . It is sponsored by Tokyo Metro. H ...

at the age of eighteen in her debut over the

distance. Her best for the event is 2:30:58 hours. She has also had success in

ekiden is a long-distance running multi-stage relay race, mostly held on roads.Otake, Tomoko. ''One for All.'' Dec. 28, 200The Japan Times accessed Feb. 19, 2009. The original Japanese term had nothing to do with a sport or a competition, but it sim ...

relay running, having represented Japan at the

Yokohama International Women's Ekiden The Yokohama International Women's Ekiden held in Yokohama, Japan, was one of the prominent ekiden races of the year. It was held annually from 1983 to 2009, and was discontinued because of the replacement of the Tokyo Women's Marathon The Toky ...

and helped Toyota Industries to their first team title domestically. She is the Japanese record holder in the

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

(1:06:38) set during a win at the

Houston Half Marathon The Houston Marathon is an annual marathon usually held every January in Houston, Texas, United States, since 1972. With thousands of runners and spectators, it is the largest single day sporting event in the city. It is run concurrently wit ...

Career

Youth

Niiya attended Kōjōkan Senior High School and began competing in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

and

while there.Hitomi Niiya
.

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. Retrieved 27 February 2011. After winning the junior selection race at the Chiba Cross Country,Nakamura, Ken (20 February 2005)
Niiya, Yamanaka, Sato and Wanjiru excel in Chiba Cross Country

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved 27 February 2011. Niiya made her international debut at the

2004 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2004 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 20/21, 2004. The races were held at the Ossegem Park in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Reports of the event were given in ''The New York Times'', and for the IAAF. ...

and her nineteenth-place finish helped the Japanese junior women to the team

. She took a consecutive victory in Chiba in February 2005, 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 (born 1 April 1986 in Fukuchiyama) is a Japanese long-distance runner. Nakamura grew up in the Hyōgo Prefecture. She finished seventh at the 2006 World Road Running Championships, helping the Japanese team win the bronze medal in the team co ...

. The

2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics were held in Marrakesh, Morocco on July 13–July 17. The host stadium was Stade Sidi Youssef Ben Ali. The boy's 400 metres hurdles event was initially won by Sudan's Abdulagadir Idriss in a time ...

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

provided her the venue for her first international individual medal, as she claimed the bronze in the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

. That October, she won the 3000 m at the 2005

National Sports Festival of Japan The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and Octob ...

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

, taking her title with a time of 15:28.70 minutes. Niiya repeated both her thirteenth placing and team bronze at the

2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2006 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on April 1/2, 2006. The races were held at the Umi-no-nakamichi Seaside Park in Fukuoka, Japan, Japan's National Cross Country Course which is the permanent residence of the annual Fukuo ...

junior race,Niiya Hitomi

. Retrieved 27 February 2011. but began to move towards

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ac ...

competitions that year.

Senior debut

She represented Japan in the

and just edged past Ethiopia's Ameba Denboba on the final leg to lift Japan into the top three. After graduating from high school she chose to focus on

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

full-time, working under coach

Yoshio Koide is a Japanese theoretical physicist working in particle physics. Koide is famous for his eponymous Koide formula, which some physicists think has great importance but which other physicists contend is merely a mathematical coincidence, numerical c ...

, who trained Olympic champion

Naoko Takahashi is a retired Japanese long-distance runner and Olympic gold medal-winning marathoner. She won the gold medal in the marathon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and became the first woman to complete a marathon in under 2:20:00 in 2001. Biography Tak ...

. The rebooted

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. In March 2008, she debuted in the

, finishing with a time of 1:11:41 hours to take third place behind

Mara Yamauchi Mara Rosalind Yamauchi (born Mara Myers 13 August 1973) is a British long-distance track and road running athlete. She currently holds the third fastest time by a British woman over the marathon, behind former world-record holder, Paula Radclif ...

and Rie Takayoshi at the Matsue Ladies Half Marathon. She competed in her second marathon that August but found herself behind

Yukari Sahaku Yukari is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yukari can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *由加里, "reason, addition, village" *由香里, "reason, smell, village" *由佳 ...

(also coached by Koide) and finished in second place at the

Hokkaido Marathon The Hokkaido Marathon held in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan, is one of the prominent marathon races of the year. The staging area as well as both the start and finish lines are in Odori Park starting between Nishi 3-chome and Nishi 4-chome and the fin ...

. 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. Her third marathon came in March 2009 at the

Nagoya Marathon The , named until the 2010 race, is an annual marathon race for female runners over the classic distance of 42 km and 195 metres, held in Nagoya, Japan in early March every year. It holds World Athletics Platinum road race status. It i ...

– 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. At the

Oda Memorial is one of the international athletic games, which takes place every April at Hiroshima Big Arch stadium in Hiroshima, Japan. In 1967, this game began to commemorate the feat of Mikio Oda, a native of Hiroshima and the first Japanese Olympic gold ...

in April she won the 5000 m with a personal best time of 15:23.27 minutes. 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 The 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were held at Myślęcinek Park in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 28 March 2010. It was the first time in over twenty years that Poland hosted the annual championships, having previously held them in Warsaw i ...

, where she finished in 31st place. Her 2011 season began with two domestic victories at the Chiba and Fukuoka Cross Country races, winning by large margins in both. At the

2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 20, 2011. The races were held at the Polideportivo Antonio Gil Hernández in Punta Umbría, Spain. Reports of the event were given for the IAAF. Preparation The Unite ...

she finished in 26th place, helping Japan to seventh in the women's team rankings. On the track, she ran a 5000 m best of 15:13.12 minutes in June then claimed the

2011 Asian Athletics Championships The 19th Asian Athletics Championships were held in Kobe, Japan between July 7–10, 2011 at the Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium. The tournament had 507 athletes from forty Asian nations competing in the 42 track and field events over the four- ...

silver medal in the event a month later, finishing behind Ethiopian-born Bahraini

Tejitu Daba Tejitu Daba Chalchissa (born 20 August 1991) is an Ethiopian-born long-distance runner who competes internationally for Bahrain. She competes mainly in cross country and track running events. She won the gold medal over 5000 metres at the 201 ...

. She was selected for the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

and reached the 5000 m final, coming 13th overall. At the Chiba International Ekiden in November she ran a stage record on the final leg to help Japan to second place behind Kenya. The

Inter-Prefectural Women's Ekiden The Inter-Prefectural Women's Ekiden () is an annual women's ekiden (road running relay race) for Japanese runners held in January in Kyoto Prefecture. The course has a looped point-to-point format over the marathon distance of 42.195 km and ...

in January 2012 saw Niiya win the final 10K stage to lift the Chiba team into third place overall. She was the best-performing Asian-born runner at the 2012

Asian Cross Country Championships The Asian Cross Country Championships is a biennial regional cross country running competition for athletes from Asia. It is organised by the Asian Athletics Association and was first held in 1991 in Fukuoka, Japan. The competition has been held e ...

, where she finished fourth in the women's race. She gained the Olympic A standard for the 10,000 m with a world-leading and personal best run of 31:28.26 minutes to win at the Hyogo Relays. She represented Japan in both the 5000 m and 10,000 m at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She set a best of 30:59.19 minutes for ninth place at the 10,000 metres final and ran a best of 15:10.20 minutes in the 5000 metres heats. She won the 5000 m at both the

Japanese National Games The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and Octob ...

and the Japanese Championships that year. She won the Fukuoka cross country title for a third year running in February 2013. 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 Plantar fasciitis or plantar heel pain (PHP) is a disorder of the plantar fascia, which is the connective tissue which supports the arch of the foot. It results in pain in the heel and bottom of the foot that is usually most severe with the f ...

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." She returned to competition in 2018 following rehabilitation for her injury and became the first Japanese winner at the Zatopek 10K in Australia in December 2018, setting a long-term aim to make the team for

Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics Japan was the host nation of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020 but postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's official debut in 1912 S ...

in Tokyo. She marked her return to the international stage the following year with a silver medal over 10,000 m at the

2019 Asian Athletics Championships The 2019 Asian Athletics Championships was the 23rd edition of the Asian Athletics Championships. It was held from 21 to 24 April 2019 at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. During the closing ceremony of the 22nd Asian Athletics Cham ...

, third at the

Japanese Athletics Championships The is an annual outdoor track and field competition, organized by Japan Association of Athletics Federations. Currently it takes place in June or July. The competition is also for the qualifying trial for the Japanese national team of internatio ...

, then eleventh at the

2019 World Athletics Championships The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athletics. It was held betw ...

.Hitomi Niiya
World Athletics. Retrieved 22 January 2020. In January 2020 Niiya surprised the field at the

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.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. In January 2023 Niiya won the

Houston Marathon The Houston Marathon is an annual marathon usually held every January in Houston, Texas, United States, since 1972. With thousands of runners and spectators, it is the largest single day sporting event in the city. It is run concurrently wi ...

in a time of 2:19:24, almost eclipsing the Japanese record of 2:19:12 set in 2005 by

Mizuki Noguchi is a Japanese professional long-distance runner who specialises in the marathon event. She is an Olympic champion over the distance. Initially starting out as a track and cross country athlete, her first major success was becoming the Asian c ...

. She won by six minutes.

International competitions

National titles

Japan Championships in Athletics The is an annual outdoor track and field competition, organized by Japan Association of Athletics Federations. Currently it takes place in June or July. The competition is also for the qualifying trial for the Japanese national team of internatio ...

**5000 m:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

**10,000 m:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Major Wins

: 2007 *

Fukuoka International Cross Country The Fukuoka International Cross Country is an annual cross country running competition which takes place in Fukuoka, Japan in either late February or Early March. It is one of the IAAF permit meetings which serve as qualifying events for the IAAF ...

: 2011, 2012, 2013 *

Chiba International Cross Country The Chiba International Cross Country is an annual cross country running competition which takes place in Chiba, Japan in mid-February. It is one of the IAAF permit meetings which serve as qualifying events for the IAAF World Cross Country Champio ...

: 2011 *

: 2020

Personal bests

– 9:10.34 (13 July 2005) *

– 15:10.20 (7 August 2012) *

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

– 30:20.44 (4 December 2020) *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcu ...

– 1:06:38 (19 January 2020) *

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

– 2:19:24 (15 January 2023)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Niiya, Hitomi Living people 1988 births Sportspeople from Okayama Prefecture Japanese female long-distance runners Japanese female marathon runners Japanese female cross country runners Olympic female long-distance runners Olympic athletes of Japan Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Japan Tokyo Marathon female winners Japan Championships in Athletics winners Australian Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics 20th-century Japanese women 21st-century Japanese women