Running News Daily

Hitomi Niiya is back from retirement and now is fully focused on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

It is a little hard to fathom, but Hitomi Niiya – potentially one of Japan’s strongest track hopes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – hates running.

The 32-year-old, who blitzed to a Japanese half-marathon record in Houston and is eyeing up a spot on the 10,000m team for this year’s Olympics, says with a smile that running makes her tired and does not remotely compare with her passion for shopping.

However, what Niiya lacks in enthusiasm for the sport, she certainly makes up for in ability and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the diminutive athlete could threaten the podium in Tokyo.

Born in the Okayama Prefecture in the south of the island of Honshu, Niiya was inspired to take up running after watching her compatriot Naoko Takahashi win marathon gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“I did a lot of sports when I was younger,” says Niiya. “My two older brothers played football so I did too, but it was watching Takahashi that inspired me and I joined a club team at junior high school.”

She made quick progress and at the age of 15 her talent was snapped up to attend the Kojyokan High School, one of Japan’s most powerful running schools.

The impact was immediate. At the age of 16 she represented Japan at the 2004 World Cross Country Championships in Brussels. On hilly terrain and thick mud, Niiya performed respectably to finish 19th in the women’s U20 race, helping her country secure team bronze.

However, the Japanese teenager was far from satisfied.

“When I arrived, I thought I could beat the athletes from the other countries,” she says. “But it was after competing in Brussels that I first realized the level of the athletes from the African countries was higher.

“It was also the first event I’d been to without my coach,” she adds. “The experience taught me I needed to be more independent. Running in Brussels acted as motivation to return to the World Cross and run better.”

She was good to her word. Twelve months later she competed at the 2005 World Cross Country Championships in St Galmier and placed 13th. Later that year she gave more evidence of her exciting potential, earning 3000m bronze at the World U18 Championships in 9:10.34 in Marrakech.

“I didn’t expect to win a medal because the Africans are so strong,” she recalls. “I was very proud. Winning bronze and watching the Japanese flag at the medal ceremony was such a happy memory.”

Training at an intensity which she believes puts her on a similar level to the top African athletes, her coach elected to enter Niiya for the Houston Half Marathon in January. Her main intention was to use the event as preparation for her 10,000m ambitions, but she excelled and won the race in 1:06:38 to carve 48 seconds from the Japanese record set by Kayoko Fukushi in 2006.

“My aim was to break the national record and I was really pleased to do so,” she adds.

“My hope is to make the Olympic team,” she explains. “If I do, I will feel a lot of responsibility for a good result. The aim is to win a medal for all the people who have supported me, from my coach, my sponsors and all the people in my life.”