is a Japanese

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 eve ...

athlete who competes in the women's heptathlon. She represented Japan at the 2004 Summer Olympics and has competed twice at the

World Championships in Athletics 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 ...

. She was the silver medallist at the

2009 Asian Athletics Championships The 18th Asian Athletics Championships were held in Guangzhou, China in 2009. Results Men's results Track Field Women's results Track Field Medal table Participating nations * (12) * (1) * (1) * (77) * (22) * (16) * ...

and the 2010 Asian Games and has won the heptathlon at the

East Asian Games The East Asian Games was a multi-sport event organized by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years from 1993 to 2013. Among those who competed included athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic ...

and the

Asian Indoor Athletics Championships The Asian Indoor Athletics Championships were held for the first time in 2004. Run by the Asian Athletics Association, the championships take place biennially in different cities all over Asia.national record for the event.

Biography

Born in

Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the north ...

, her first international medal in the event came at the 1996

Asian Junior Athletics Championships The Asian Junior Athletics Championships (U20) (Asian Junior U20 Athletics Championships) are the Asian championships open for those of age according to junior. It is currently organized by the Asian Athletics Association.silver medal behind India's Soma Biswas. She made her international debut two years later at the

1998 Asian Athletics Championships The 12th Asian Championships in Athletics were held in Fukuoka, Japan in July 1998. Medal summary Men Women Medal table See also *1998 in athletics (track and field) External linksGBR Athletics {{asian athletics champs Asian Athlet ...

, finishing ninth, and returned to the competition in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, improving to sixth place. That year she broke the Japanese national record in the heptathlon, recording 5642 points. She improved her best further in 2001 with a score of 5862 points and gained her first national title in 2002. Nakata was selected to represent Japan at the 2002 Asian Games as a result and she ended the competition in fifth place. The 2003 season saw her reach new heights as she retained her national heptathlon title with a Japanese record of 5910 points. An international senior medal followed later that year at the

2003 Asian Athletics Championships The 15th Asian Athletics Championships were held in Manila, Philippines on September 20–23, 2003. Results Men Women Medal table Participating nations * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Se ...

where she was runner-up to Kazakh athlete Irina Naumenko. She won the inaugural gold medal in the

women's pentathlon The pentathlon or women's pentathlon is a combined track and field event in which each woman competes in five separate events over one day (formerly two days). The distance or time for each event is converted to points via scoring tables, with t ...

at the

2004 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships The 2004 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships was an international indoor athletics event took place in Tehran, Iran, between 6 and 8 February. The female events were held separately from the men's events, taking place during the morning sessions. ...

. She was on top form 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 ...

, winning a third straight title with another national record of 5962 points. She became the first Japanese woman to enter the Olympic heptathlon at the

2004 Athens Games The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, but she did not match her performance from earlier that season and came 28th (last) with a total of 4871 points. After another win nationally in 2005, she made her debut at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first IAAF ...

. She scored 5735 points for twentieth place, but was again in last place among all the heptathlon finishers. She closed the year with a silver medal at the

, finishing behind Wang Hailan of China. Nakata had 4037 points in the pentathlon at the

2006 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships The 2006 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships was an international indoor athletics event took place in Pattaya, Thailand, between 10 and 12 February. This was the first edition to be hosted in the country. A total of 24 nations sent athletes to ...

, but this was not enough for a medal. She fared better outdoors, winning the heptathlon and coming fifth in the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

at the Japanese nationals and going on to finish just behind bronze medalist J. J. Shobha at the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

. Nakata repeated her national placings at the 2007 Japanese Championships and made her third global level appearance at the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federat ...

, held on home turf in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

. She finished the heptathlon competition with a score of 5869 points, which included a personal best of 2:17.61 minutes in the final

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since t ...

event. She won the 2008 Japanese heptathlon title, but did not achieve the entry standard needed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. An eighth consecutive Japanese title came in 2009, She did not compete at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

that year, but won a silver at the

in November and a gold medal at the

2009 East Asian Games ) , Host city = Hong Kong , Teams participating = 9 , Athletes participating = 2,377 , Events = 262 events in 22 sports , Opening ceremony = December 5, 2009 , Closing ceremony = December 13, 2009 , Officially opened by = State Councilor ...

a month later. Following a ninth national title, she competed at the 2010 Asian Games and was the runner-up behind the reigning Asian champion

Yuliya Tarasova Yuliya Tarasova (born 13 March 1986) is an Uzbekistani heptathlete and long jumper. Tarasova was born in Tashkent. She finished seventh at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics, 2003 World Youth Championships, fourteenth at the 2004 Wo ...

.Jamal captures 1500m title in Guangzhou - Asian Games, Day 3
IAAF (2010-11-24). Retrieved 2019-10-15.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakata, Yuki 1977 births Living people Japanese heptathletes Olympic heptathletes Olympic athletes for Japan Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Asian Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Japan Championships in Athletics winners 20th-century Japanese women 21st-century Japanese women