From Berlin and trained by Fred Behrnsen, he took his first international medal at the 1970 European Athletics Indoor Championships where he was part of the bronze medal-winning West German medley relay team. He returned to the competition six years later and became the 3000 metres champion on home turf in Munich.[1]
He achieved the majority of success in road running. He took the first of his three victories at the Berlin Marathon in 1976 with a time 2:23:08 hours. He improved to 2:20:21 hours in winning the Essen Marathon later that year, then to 2:17:49 hours to top the podium in Porz the following April. Sensburg won the Berlin Marathon again in 1979 and had his fastest performance there (2:16:48) during his 1980 win. His record of three wins was finally bettered by Haile Gebrselassie, who completed four straight wins in 2009.[2] Sensburg was runner-up at the Hamburg Marathon in 1981. The highlights of his later career were four straight wins at the Berlin Half Marathon from 1985 to 1988.[3]
Sensburg competed very frequently during his career at a local level and in 2012 he estimated that he had won 166 Berlin championship titles.[2] He continued running in his older years in the masters athlete categories. In the over-45s category he was world champion in the 10,000 metres in 1995 and in the 10K run in 1994.[4][5]
