Skip to main content

Kensuke Takezawa to Make Pro Debut June 10

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/p-sp-tp0-20090522-497447.html

translated by Brett Larner

Beijing Olympian, former Waseda University ace and Hakone Ekiden star Kensuke Takezawa (22, Team S&B) is taking his first steps toward August's World Championships in Berlin. On June 10 Takezawa will make his pro debut in the Hokuren Distance Challenge Fukagawa meet 3000 m, his first race since his stage-record run in January's Hakone Ekiden. Four days later he will run the 5000 m in the Challenge's Shibetsu meet, targeting the World Championships B-standard of 13:29.00. If he is successful in attacking this mark, Takezawa will go for his first national title at the National Track and Field Championships in Hiroshima at the end of the month to seal his place on the Berlin team.*

Four years of abusing his body led to injuries including stress fractures and knee, hip and Achilles tendon problems, but Takezawa says he is now finally feeling back in one piece. His Waseda-era coach Yasuyuki Watanabe commented, "Kensuke once told me, 'Without big goals you can't get anywhere.' He's the kind of guy who will always try to run outside of himself." So far only World Championships marathon team member Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Takezawa's teammate Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) have made the Berlin 5000 m B-standard qualification time, so the places on the national team are wide open for the taking. Having run in the 2007 World Championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympics Takezawa stands to extend his world-level competition streak to three straight years if he is truly back to his full powers.

*Translator's note: Takezawa holds a 5000 m PB of 13:19.00. He was 2nd in last year's National Championships 5000 m after having been out of training for over 4 months with injuries. As only one B-standard runner per country is allowed to run in a given event, in addition to making the World Championships B-standard Takezawa will have to break his teammate Yuichiro Ueno's recent B-standard mark of 13:26.31 to get a chance to run in Berlin.

Other notable runners on the start list for the June 10 Fukagawa meet include women's 5000 m national record holder Kayoko Fukushi, Berlin World Championships marathoner Arata Fujiwara, men's 3000 mSC national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu, men's 1500 m national record holder Fumikazu Kobayashi, and top jitsugyodan runners Mika Yoshikawa, Noriko Matsuoka, Bene Zama, Ann Karindi, Betelhem Moges and Micah Njeru.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters