Ingvill Måkestad wins 1500m at European Team Championships-First League...

IZMIR, Turkey--Former University of Washington standout Ingvill Måkestad of Norway (left/photo by Martin Bingisser) emerged victorious in the 1500 meter run Sunday at the European Team Championships-First League at at Atatürk Stadium in the Turkish city.

Måkestad ran 4:25.92 to take home the win in a tactical race over Johanna Lehtinen of Finland (4:26.05), and Sultan Haydar (4:26.50) of host Turkey.

According to Swiss hammer thrower and former Husky Martin Bingisser, who is in the stadium, after he competed Saturday, "Ingvill showed a good kick over the final 150 to win a tactical race."

In a brief message to paulmerca.blogspot.com after Saturday's 800 meter race, where she finished in fourth for Team Norway in 2:02.64, she said that she was using this weekend's races to work on tactics that she'll need to be competitive at the world championships in Daegu later this summer, particularly racing on consecutive days.

Events in this meet pit one athlete from twelve countries--Greece, Turkey, Norway, Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia, and Croatia against each other, with the top three teams earning places in the top division, which includes traditional European powerhouses Germany, Russia, and Great Britain.

Courtesy of European Athletics, here is her post-race interview:



Turkey (329 points), Greece (307.5 points) and Norway (290 points) took home the top three spots, and will be promoted to the European Super League.

The European Athletics recap of the meet is available here.

Complete results from the European Team Championships-First League are available here.

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