Skip to main content

Takezawa Scores 3000 m PB in Saragossa

by Brett Larner

Beijing Olympian Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B), in Europe to chase after the World Championships A-standard in the 5000 m, tuned up at the Gobierno de Aragon Meet in Saragossa, Spain on July 18. Still on the recovery from a plague of injuries over the last two years, Takezawa scored the first significant result of his three and a half month old pro career with a PB of over 5 seconds in the 3000 m. Takezawa clocked a time of 7:49.26, good enough only for 7th but a mark which puts him in good position to achieve his target of setting a World Championships A-standard time before the Aug. 3 deadline.

Takezawa, who has a 5000 m PB of 13:19.00, needs the A-standard to join the Berlin team alongside his teammate Yuichiro Ueno, who has already been guaranteed a spot after both setting a B-standard time and winning this year's National Championships 5000 m. Also in the hunt for an A-standard in Europe is Takezawa's great university rival Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin). Should Takezawa and Sato both succeed in earning A-standard times the Japanese 5000 m squad in Berlin will be made up of the three best young runners the country has produced in recent years.

Click here for complete results from the Gobierno de Aragon Meet.

2009 Gobierno de Aragon Meet - Men's 3000 m Top Finishers
1. Josephat Kiprono Menjo (Kenya) - 7:44.15 - PB
2. Jesus Espana Cobo (Spain) - 7:44.49
3. Francisco Javier Alves Vas (Spain) - 7:45.30 - PB
-----
7. Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B) - 7:49.26 - PB

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...
2 comments
Read more