I am doing some end of year research as we prepare to write some end of year columns on LetsRun. I was reminded that in January Japan's Hitomi Niiya nearly added the marathon NR to her CV - she already holds the 10,000 (30:20) and half-marathon NRs (66:38) when she rna 2:19:24.
Does anyone know what she's up to? Is she not interested in going to the Olympics? I saw she ran Berlin on September 24 when their Marathon Grand Championship race was just 3 weeks later.
Anyone know what her plans are? Why didn't she run the Trials?
Brett Larner of Japan Running News would know better than anyone besides Niiya, I Heard she ran Berlin as she wanted to bring the National Japanese Womens Marathon way down, more than the Olympic Spot.
I don't know exactly but I'm pretty sure she has no interest in making the Olympic team so didn't run MGC (trials). Niiya helped her corporate team Sekisui Kagaku win at the Queens Ekiden (most important women's corporate ekiden) and stayed in 1st through the stage although wasn't the fastest on the stage I think.
Niiya told reporters that she will try to break the record at the Berlin Marathon this September, while reiterating she will not take part in any event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
About the Olympics after she race the 10000 in Tokyo she said ----
"The Tokyo games made me consider as an athlete if the Olympics are truly needed by citizens no matter what. To represent Japan and to take part in the Olympics are not everything,"
As someone wrote above, Brett Larner is the man to answer any and all questions on this subject, but as I understand it, the Japanese corporate running scene is heavily skewed toward ekiden performance. That's literally a runner's job: deliver the goods on New Year's Day (the big pro ekiden) and in the qualifiers. My suspicion is that until a few years ago, society would have expected the top runners to target the Olympics as well (in the marathon; until recently the track has also been mostly ignored by Japanese, who need to load up on mileage to meet their ekiden responsibilities) simply for national honor. Not so much anymore, I guess. At least not for the iconoclasts.
Brett Larner of Japan Running News would know better than anyone besides Niiya, I Heard she ran Berlin as she wanted to bring the National Japanese Womens Marathon way down, more than the Olympic Spot.
Brett Larner definitely wouldn't know better, actually Niiya is among the athletes he avoids to mention in his articles nowadays (just like he does with Kawauchi and Tanaka). He once was her agent and back then wrote very positively of her on JRN, but when she changed to Leo Manzano he apparently got very mad and has obviously also lost all insights to her and her team.
About Niiya and Paris, she stated pretty early on that she doesn't aim for Paris this year, but wants to break the japanese marathon record (which she failed to in Berlin). Besides the english language article already posted you can also find some articles in japanese on this by searching for something like "新谷 仁美パリ" on google. She however obviously still has a chance to qualify for the japanese Olympic team by running a fast time, I don't know if she announced if she would accept a nomination in this case.
As someone wrote above, Brett Larner is the man to answer any and all questions on this subject, but as I understand it, the Japanese corporate running scene is heavily skewed toward ekiden performance. That's literally a runner's job: deliver the goods on New Year's Day (the big pro ekiden) and in the qualifiers. My suspicion is that until a few years ago, society would have expected the top runners to target the Olympics as well (in the marathon; until recently the track has also been mostly ignored by Japanese, who need to load up on mileage to meet their ekiden responsibilities) simply for national honor. Not so much anymore, I guess. At least not for the iconoclasts.
New Year Ekiden is for men, the women already had their biggest ekiden race of the year three weeks ago as already mentioned. Also the rest is basically bullsh*t (sorry for the harsh word), the Olympics are very very big in japan and definitetly a big goal for anybody else who might only have a slight chance to participate. Niiya appears to have personal reasons to think differently on this matter, personally I guess that's up to her having put very big pressure on herself regarding a Olympic participation before (she publicly stated that she wanted to win a medal at the 10000m in Tokio as far as I remember) and generally being a runner who is very prone to her nerves.
I don't know exactly but I'm pretty sure she has no interest in making the Olympic team so didn't run MGC (trials). Niiya helped her corporate team Sekisui Kagaku win at the Queens Ekiden (most important women's corporate ekiden) and stayed in 1st through the stage although wasn't the fastest on the stage I think.
Niiya was 2nd fastest on that leg, 9 seconds slower than Yuka Takashima who just ran 30:57 at the Japanese 10,000m Championships.
I am doing some end of year research as we prepare to write some end of year columns on LetsRun. ...
Worth mentioning Haruka Kokai in those? She's a year younger than Parker Valby and Megan Keith but she's just run 30:57 at the Japanese 10,000m Championships ... Faster than any US collegian ever (31:18) and any European-born U23 ever (31:11) and also faster than what would be the US U23 record - Monson's 31:10.8.
I am doing some end of year research as we prepare to write some end of year columns on LetsRun. ...
Worth mentioning Haruka Kokai in those? She's a year younger than Parker Valby and Megan Keith but she's just run 30:57 at the Japanese 10,000m Championships ... Faster than any US collegian ever (31:18) and any European-born U23 ever (31:11) and also faster than what would be the US U23 record - Monson's 31:10.8.
Kokai's performance certainly was very impressive, but I wouldn't get too excited about it considering japan and its history of wearing down young athletes. Seira Fuwa for example ran a solo 30:45 when she was 18 years old two years ago and has been nothing but injured ever since.
Although she led the Japanese women, Hitomi Niiya, who was hoping to set a new Japan record, slowed after the 30km mark and placed sixth with a time of 2:21:50. “I didn’t get the results. Nothing more and nothing less”, she commented.
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