Hanami Sekine

Hanami Sekine (関根 花観 (Sekine Hanami); born 26 February 1996) is a Japanese female long-distance runner who competes in track events. She competed for Japan at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Hanami Sekine
Personal information
Born (1996-02-26) 26 February 1996
Tokyo, Japan[1]
Height1.56 m (5 ft 1 in)[2]
Weight43 kg (95 lb)[2]
Sport
Country Japan
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)10,000 m: 31:22.92 min

Born in Tokyo,[1] Sekine showed her promise for distance running by winning a leg at the Inter-Prefectural Women's Ekiden as a junior high school athlete.[3] Her first international medal came over 3000 metres at the 2014 Asian Junior Athletics Championships, where she was silver medallist behind Kyrgyz athlete Darya Maslova.[4][5] She continued to perform well in national ekiden competitions, winning her stage at the Inter-Prefectural race in 2014 and 2016, and coming runner-up at the All-Japan Women's Corporate Ekiden Championships in 2015.[6]

Sekine showed much improvement on the track in the 2016 season and at the 2016 Japan Championships in Athletics she set a personal best of 31:22.92 minutes to take second behind Ayuko Suzuki in the 10,000 metres, then placed third in the 5000 metres with another best of 15:24.74 minutes.[6] She was chosen to represent Japan at the 2016 Summer Olympics over the longer distance.[7] At the competition she was near the top of the field in the opening stages, but fell away as the leading pack took on a world record pace. She finished 20th, two places behind national rival Yuka Takashima.[8]

Personal bests

International competitions
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2014 Asian Junior Championships Taipei, Taiwan 2nd 3000 m 9:17.55
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 20th 10,000 m 31:44.44

References
  1. 関根 花観　Hanami Sekine. JAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
  2. Hanami Sekine Archived 2016-08-06 at the Wayback Machine. Rio2016. Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
  3. Nakamura, Ken (2011-01-17). Kyoto takes women's Inter-Prefectural Ekiden title in Kyoto . IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
  4. Hanami Sekine. All-Athletics. Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
  5. 16th Asian Junior Athletics Championships Women Results Archived 2014-07-26 at Archive.today. Taipei2014. Retrieved on 2014-07-13.
  6. Hanami Sekine. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
  7. Japan names athletics team for Rio 2016 Olympics. IAAF (2016-06-27). Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
  8. "Women's 10,000m Final" (PDF). Rio2016.com. Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016. 12 August 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
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