The second volume

Japanese

"Kinue Hitomi (1907-1931)" - 1 -

Kinue Hitomi was born in January 1st in 1907 in Okayama prefecture (West of Japan) as the second daughter of a farm family. In her childhood, she liked to play aroundoutside rather than studying at home, but she studied hard and was succeeded in leaping the hurdle of an entrance exam of Okayama Girls' School that was allowed to enter only 25% of the examinees.

In her school days, she was absorbed in tennis. At a tennis tournament of the prefecture, she watched senior players of her team lost in the semifinal match. Afterwards, she expressed her feeling at that moment in her autobiography as follows. "When my senior players lost the game, I felt so sad. Absolutely I committed myself to be a good tennis player and stand a tennis court at the return match." As she said, she carried out her resolution at the next year's tournament.

At the age of 16, when she was in the fourth grade, Okayama Girls' School set the aim, "We should be a supreme ruler in every athletic event." Kinue also took the track and field events on the prefecture. Of course this tournament was first experience for her but she established 4.67 meters in the long jump, which was the best record of Japanese women then. That was how she put herself into track and field.

After graduation of the school, when she was seventeen, Kinue went on to present Japan Women's College of Physical Education and competed in the triple hop jump in the track and field events held at Okayama prefecture and marked 10.33 meters, which was a new world record.

In 1926, Kinue, who was endowed with literary talent, entered a newspaper company, Osaka Mainich Shinbunsha as a journalist. It was four months after she entered the company, when she was nineteen, she went to Goteborg, Sweden, to participate in the Second Women's Olympic Games as a member of Japanese women athlete team.

At the Olympic, she set a new world record 5.50 meters in the long jump, won a champion ship in the standing long jump with the record of 2.49 meters. In addition to the above, she won silver medal in the discus throw, bronze medal in the 100 yards and took a fifth place in the 60 meters. She acquired 15 points by only herself and won the individual championship. Her great achievement that she raised Japan fifth place in a team score by herself surprised people all over the world.

To be continued...