japan running news

5th in the women's 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) returned to Japan on Dec. 15 from Melbourne, Australia. In her first track 10000 m since Moscow over five years ago Niiya won the Zatopek:10 in 31:32.50 to clear the 2019 Doha World Championships entry standard of 31:50.00. "I just barely cleared my minimum goal," she said of her performance. In the Zatopek:10 race Niiya showed that her aggressive style lives on. Taking off from the lead group after only 2000 m she ran the entire rest of the way to the win alone. "The last 3000 m were hard," she said. "I understood that I'm not doing enough distance in training." Asked to compare her performance to her golden years in Moscow, where she ran an all-time Japanese #3 mark of 30:56.70 she rated Zatopek "50-60%." In just her fifth race since starting to make a comeback in the spring from five years of retirement Niiya cleared the World Ch...

https://www.iaaf.org/news/report/niiya-mcsweyn-win-zatopek-10-2018 58th Zatopek:10 Melbourne, Australia, 12/13/18 complete results Women's 10000 m 1. Hitomi Niiya (Japan/Nike Tokyo TC) - 31:32.50 2. Sinead Diver (Australia) - 31:50.98 3. Ellie Pashley (Australia) - 32:17.81 4. Emily Brichacek (Australia) - 32:22.38 5. Camille Buscomb (New Zealand) - 32:28.37 Women's 1500 m 1. Whitney Sharpe (Australia) - 4:16.48 2. Madeleine Murray (Australia) - 4:18.36 3. Lilli Price (Australia) - 4:18.73 4. Natalie Rule (Australia) - 4:22.15 5. Isabella Thornton-Bott (Australia) - 4:23.53 ----- 7. Ran Urabe (Japan/Nike Tokyo TC) - 4:27.32 photo © 2018 Riley Wolff/Tempo Journal, all rights reserved

Livestreaming of today's Zatopek:10 meet in Melbourne, Australia beginning at 6:25 p.m. local time.  Japan's  Ran Urabe  and  Hitomi Niiya   of the Nike Tokyo Track Club will both run,  Urabe in the women's 1500 m at 7:25 p.m. and  Niiya in the women's 10000 m at 8:15 p.m. Full schedule and entries here . Live results will be posted here .

5th in the 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) left Japan Dec. 7 for her first 10000 m since returning from five years away from the sport, the Dec. 13 Zatopek:10 in Melbourne, Australia. The Zatopek:10 will be her fifth race in a year that saw her run a 31:08 course record on the anchor stage of November's East Japan Women's Ekiden. Her condition is even better than at the time of her come-from-behind East Japan victory. "The result is important, but everything that I could do to be ready for it is done," she told reporters. "All that's left is to run hard for 30 minutes." Since starting her comeback Niiya has run mostly 5000 m, but now her focus has shifted to 10000 m. "If you consider when I was running before a 10, I'm at about 6 or 7 right now" she said. As a test of her fitness she is setting 31:30 as her target. That is more than 30 seconds off her best but would rank her #1 in Ja...

All-time Japanese #3 for 10000 m, Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) makes a return to the distance at Australia's Zatopek:10 next week with support from JRN after five years away from the sport. Niiya's history at the distance is short with only four track 10000 m races to her name, but good ones they were, one and all: 31:28.26, 2012 Hyogo Relay Carnival - 1st 30:59.19, 2012 London Olympics - 9th 31:06.67 MR, 2013 Japanese National Championships - 1st 30:56.70, 2013 Moscow World Championships - 5th Following her crushing defeat over the last lap in Moscow after leading the entire race Niiya quit running and everything to do with it. But in the spring this year, now 30, she decided to try to make a comeback in hope of making the 2020 Olympic team in the 10000 m, telling the media, "I still totally hate running, but unfortunately it seems like this is where I belong."  After three track races from 3000 m to 5000 m between June and October she made a definit...

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