Sakura Hauge

Sakura Hauge

Personal information
Born	(1987-01-07) 7 January 1987 Bergen, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian and Japanese
Height
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Vipers Kristiansand
Number	1
Senior clubs
?–? ?–2007 2007–2014 2014–	IL Gneist Nordstrand IF Tertnes IL Vipers Kristiansand
National team
2015–	Japan	3 (0)

Sakura Hauge, also known as Sakura Kametani (亀谷 さくら, Kametani Sakura), (born 7 January 1987) is a Norwegian-Japanese handball goalkeeper who plays for Vipers Kristiansand and the Japanese national team.

Club career

Hauge began her career playing for the Bergen-based club IL Gneist, before joining the club Stabæk IF in Oslo. After Stabæk, she played for Nordstrand IF. Beginning in 2007, Hauge played for the club Tertnes IL in Bergen for seven seasons. In 2014 she joined the club Vipers Kristiansand in Kristiansand, signing a two-year contract. Hauge signed a new two-year contract with Vipers Kristiansand in 2016. She has player number 1 at Vipers, and has a height of .

National teams

From 2003 to 2005 Hauge played eight matches for the Norway women's national youth handball team. Before that she had played 14 matches for the junior handball team. Although amongst the players chosen for the Norway women's national handball team in the 2010 European Women's Handball Championship, and being a candidate for the Norwegian team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, she then did not play for Norway on a national level before 2014. In 2014 Hauge played two recruit level matches against Sweden, in one of which she was declared Most Valuable Player. In the early 2010s Hauge suffered from jumper's knee.

Citing disillusionment with her lack of prospects at the Norwegian national team, Hauge joined the Japan women's national handball team in 2015, having contacted the Japanese team the previous year. When playing for Japan, she is known as Sakura Kametani. She played three matches for Japan in the 2015 World Women's Handball Championship in Denmark, where Japan ended on 19th place.

Personal life

Hauge was born in Bergen, Norway, to a Japanese mother and a Norwegian father. She grew up in her father's home town of Bergen. In primary and secondary school she received Japanese language lessons (mother tongue instruction). During her childhood, the family would holiday in Hauge's mother's home town of Okayama. From age 15 to 20, she lived in Oslo.