Go Ahead and Call It a Comeback - Niiya Breaks Shibui's Course Record in Return to Road Racing

Ladies and gentlemen, Hitomi Niiya is back.

You might remember Hitomi Niiya from the 2013 Moscow World Championships 10000 m, where she led the entire way only to get destroyed over the last lap and finish 5th in 30:56.70. That made her the third-fastest Japanese woman ever over that distance, but not long after that race she quit the sport entirely, getting an office job as far away from athletics as she could and not running for almost five years.

But the pull of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is strong, and, now 30, early this year she made the decision to try to make a comeback. Under the eye of former men's 800 m national record holder Masato Yokota she ran a 3000 m and two 5000 m time trials on the track between April and October before choosing the East Japan Women's Ekiden for her return to the roads and the longer distances.

The East Japan Women's Ekiden celebrated its 34th running Sunday, 9 stages totaling 42.195 km through the Fukushima countryside with teams from each of the 18 prefectures in the eastern half of Japan. The first half of the race saw Shizuoka and Nagano trading stage wins with Nagano mostly maintaining the lead and Chiba in the mix. Running anchor for Tokyo, pre-race Niiya had said that as long as she was within two minutes of the leader she could make it up over the 10 km anchor stage. By the end of the Fifth Stage Tokyo was 1:54 behind.

The team's chances looked iffy at best, but over the next three stages Tokyo scored two stage wins to cut the deficit down to 1:35 by the time Niiya took the tasuki. Her competition ahead included 2:23 marathoner Mao Kiyota and two-time National University Women's Ekiden champion Meijo University's Kanna Tamaki, but Niiya was relentless in cutting them all down. 2:55 for the first km. 15:22 at halfway, already just 34 seconds behind leader Tamaki by then. The announcers on the TV broadcast were giddy. You could hear it in their voices.

Past Tamaki into the lead at 8 km. Breaking the tape in 2:18:44, 23 seconds ahead. Combine that with how far behind she was at the start and she made up 1:58, exactly what she said she was going to do. And there's more. The course record for the anchor stage was 31:11. set in 2000 by the great Yoko Shibui a year and a half before she set the still-standing track 10000 m Japanese national record. Niiya ran 31:08. Just over a year and a half before Tokyo 2020. "People say that this race is where the next generation learns to fly," she said afterward. "I'm someone who already folded my wings and put them away once, but I want to try to spread them one more time."

34th East Japan Women's Ekiden

Fukushima, 11/11/18
18 teams, 9 stages, 42.195 km
complete results

Top Individual Stage Performances
First Stage (6.0 km) - Maho Shimizu (Shizuoka) - 19:19
Second Stage (4.0 km) - Narumi Kobayashi (Nagano) - 13:09
Third Stage (3.0 km) - Izumi Takamatsu (Nagano) - 10:03
Fourth Stage (3.0 km) - Nanaka Yonezawa (Shizuoka) - 9:33
Fifth Stage (5.0875 km) -Yuna Wada (Nagano) - 16:38
Sixth Stage (4.1075 km) - Haruko Hosaka (Tokyo) - 13:28
Seventh Stage (4.0 km) - Kayo Aida (Tokyo) - 13:00
Eighth Stage (3.0 km) - Natsumi Yamanaka (Saitama) - 9:12
Ninth Stage (10.0 km) - Hitomi Niiya (Tokyo) - 31:08 - CR

Top Team Performances
1. Tokyo - 2:18:44
2. Nagano - 2:19:07
3. Shizuoka - 2:19:26
4. Chiba - 2:19:58
5. Kanagawa - 2:20:42
6. Gunma - 2:21:11
7. Saitama - 2:21:24
8. Ibaraki - 2:22:06
9. Miyagi - 2:22:18
10. Akita - 2:23:20

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Nationally-Ranked Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. Withdraws From Region Championships Due to Bear Attacks

5th at last year's National High School Ekiden boys' race, Fukushima's Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. has withdrawn its boys' and girls' team from the Nov. 6 Tohoku Region Ekiden Championships in Fukushima. A school spokesperson commented, "We made this decision based on the likelihood of our students coming into contact with bears in the city when out running in the morning." The Akita Athletics Association had already made an announcement on its website on Oct. 31 that due to the high number of bear encounters within the city of Akita this year , the ekiden would be held on a track instead of as a road race. Organizers said that they are leaving it up to each individual school whether to participate, and that they will accept schools choosing not to participate due to safety concerns. The Gakuho Ishikawa boys and girls both won the Fukushima Prefecture High School Ekiden in October, earning them places at the Tohoku regional meet and December's National High...

Komazawa Back On Top With 17th National University Ekiden Title

#3-ranked Komazawa University came on strong over the second half of the National University Ekiden to take a record 17th national title, more than any other program in the national championship race's 57-year history. It had its share of dominant single-stage runs, but more than that this year's Komazawa lineup was consistent across the board, the only school to put all 8 of its runners into the top 5 on their stages, all but 2 of them in the top 3. Over the first 2 legs it was never more than 3 seconds out of 1st, moving up into that position by 1 seconds on the 3rd leg with a good run from 4th-year Yudai Kiyama . 3rd-year Kaisei Yasuhara was the weakest link with only the 5th-best time on the 4th leg, dropping Komazawa back to 4th and 35 seconds behind #2-ranked Chuo University 's Daichi Shibata . But on the next leg Komazawa 4th-year Aoi Ito turned it back around with the biggest run at this year's Nationals, running 35:01 for the 12.4 km 5th leg, 17 seconds unde...

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon Elite Field

Everything in Japanese marathoning is already about qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's trials race for the L.A. Olympics. Scheduled the same day as the Fukuoka International Marathon, the Dec. 7 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon counts the same weight as Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka in men's qualification, with trials spots up to be had by the first 6 Japanese men under 2:09:00 and the first Japanese woman under 2:27:00. The only real contender to do that among the women is Mizuki Nishimura , running her first marathon off a 1:41:42 CR at the Kumanichi 30k in February. Given the Tenmaya corporate team's track record of success in the marathon, including the current women's NR of 2:18:59, her chances are pretty good. Ayumi Morita ran a 2:31:38 PB in Tokyo last year, but it's a big jump for her to get down to 2:26 and it'll mostly be a question of whether Nishimura executes the same way she did at Kumanichi. For men there are 6 under 2:09:00 in the last 3 years, with Ryoma T...

japan running news

Search This Blog