Irina Mikitenko

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Irina Mikitenko at the Berlin Marathon 2011
Irina Mikitenko at the German Championships over 10,000 meters in 2006

Irina Mikitenko (born Irina Wolynskaja ; born August 23, 1972 in Baqanas in the Almaty region ) is a former German long-distance runner of Kazakh origin. She won the London Marathon twice and the Berlin Marathon once .

Life

Mikitenko turned to long-distance running at the age of 14. Under her maiden name Wolynskaja she started for Kazakhstan at the Olympic Games 1996 in Atlanta in the 5000 meter run and was eliminated there in the preliminary run. Since she has German ancestors, she moved to Hessen as a repatriate with her husband in 1996 .

In 1998 she became German champion in the 10,000 meter run and won the Trier New Year's Eve run . In the following year she broke Kathrin Weßel's record in the 5000 meter run with 14: 54.32 min , became German champion over this distance, improved her record to 14:50 when she finished fourth at the 1999 World Athletics Championships in Seville, 17 minutes and shortly afterwards set a new German record on September 7, 1999 in Berlin with 14: 42.03 minutes.

A year later she became German champion in cross-country running , defended her national title over 5000 meters, broke on 11 August 2000 in Zurich with 8: 30.39 min to 17 years old record in the 3000 meters of Brigitte Kraus and was at the Olympic Games 2000 in Sydney fifth over 5000 meters. The same place over the same distance she finished the following year at the World Championships in Edmonton . Her best time over 10,000 meters (31: 29.55 min) also dates from 2001.

In 2003, when she won the Paderborn Easter Run with 31:28 minutes, she set the German record at the time in the 10 km road run and won the Bietigheim New Year's Eve run . At the 2004 Olympic Games , she was seventh over 5000 meters.

After a baby break, she returned to competition in 2006 and became German champion over 5000 and 10,000 meters. At the European Championships in Gothenburg she was ninth, one place behind her permanent competitor Sabrina Mockenhaupt . However, she was able to beat this a short time later when both made their half marathon debuts at the Cologne Marathon .

In 2007 she finished second behind Benita Johnson in the Berlin Half Marathon in her personal best of 1:09:46 h. On September 2nd, 2007 she became German half marathon champion in Bad Liebenzell in 1:10:03 h. On September 30, 2007, she made her debut on this route at the Berlin Marathon . With a time of 2:24:51 h, she finished second and qualified straight away for the marathon of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. This was the fastest marathon debut of a German runner of all time.

In 2008 she set a course record and a personal best in the half marathon at the Paderborn Easter run with 1:08:51 h. Then she won the London Marathon on April 13 in 2:24:14 h and improved the nine-year-old German record of Katrin Dörre-Heinig . Because of a persistent pelvic injury, she canceled her start at the Olympic Games on August 1, 2008. After her recovery, she secured the German championship title in the 10 km road race in Karlsruhe on September 13, 2008 . With her winning time of 30:57 minutes, she improved the German record she held by 31 seconds and at the same time took first place in the world's best list of the year. On September 28, 2008, she won the Berlin Marathon and improved her own German record by almost five minutes to 2:19:19 h, which equated to fourth place on the world's best list.

On November 2, 2008, Mikitenko was awarded the World Marathon Majors (WMM) jackpot of US $ 500,000 after she and Gete Wami led the ranking together with 65 points at the end of the 2007/08 series. The decisive factor in favor of Mikitenko was the fact that she collected her points in just three races against four of her predecessor.

In March 2009 she started the competition season with a third place in the half marathon Roma - Ostia in 1:11:01 h. As in the previous year, she won the Paderborn Easter Run on April 11, but this time on the 10 km course in 31:22 minutes. Two weeks later she won the London Marathon again in a time of 2:22:11 h, one minute ahead of the British Mara Yamauchi . After that, Mikitenko was considered a favorite for winning the marathon at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. A few days before the event, however, she canceled her participation. After the death of her father two weeks earlier, she could no longer concentrate on her training and stated that because of this she no longer had the necessary form to start at the World Championships. Instead, she competed two months later in the Chicago Marathon , where she finished second in 2:26:31 h; which was converted into a victory in 2015 because the original winner Lilija Schobuchowa was convicted of doping. With this she again secured the overall victory in the WMM series.

In 2010, she gave up halfway through the race at the London Marathon due to pain in her foot. A month later she won the Austrian Women's Run . She finished fifth in the Chicago Marathon.

In 2011, Mikitenko won the Parelloops 10 km in the Netherlands . She came seventh in the London Marathon and second in Berlin. In 2012, she again reached seventh place in London. At the Olympic Games in London she came in 14th as the best German. In 2013, she started at the Tokyo Marathon and came third. At the Berlin Marathon in the same year, she set a world record in the over 40-year-old class as third place with 2:24:54 h.

Irina Mikitenko is 1.58 m tall, weighs 49 kg and is married to her trainer Alexander Mikitenko, with whom she has two children. Her father-in-law Leonid was a participant in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City with a best time of 13:36 minutes over 5000 meters.

Mikitenko started for TV Gelnhausen (until 1998), LG Eintracht Frankfurt (1999-2005), TV Wattenscheid (2006-2010), Sportclub Gelnhausen (2011/12) and again LG Eintracht Frankfurt (since 2013). For the year 2008 she was awarded Athlete of the Year by the German Athletics Association . She won the title runner of the year in 2013. She ended her career in 2014.

Top performances

  • 1500 m : 4: 06.08 min, June 9, 2001, Dortmund
  • 3000 m: 8: 30.39 min, August 11, 2000, Zurich (former German record)
  • 5000 m: 14: 42.03 min, September 7, 1999, Berlin (former German record)
  • 10,000 m: 31: 29.55 min, April 7, 2001, Barakaldo
  • 10 km road race: 30:57 min, September 13, 2008, Karlsruhe (German record)
  • Half marathon: 1:08:51 h, March 22, 2008, Paderborn
  • Marathon: 2:19:19 h, September 28, 2008, Berlin (German record)

Web links

Commons : Irina Mikitenko  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ NDR : World Athletics Championships 2003 - Irina Mikitenko ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. Der Tagesspiegel : Victory from the top . April 14, 2008
  3. Leichtathletik.de: Irina Mikitenko cancels for the Olympics . August 1, 2008
  4. Runner's World : Irina Mikitenko - eighth fastest 10 km runner of all time  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.runnersworld.de  
  5. World Marathon Majors: Martin Lel and Irina Mikitenko win the second World Marathon Majors series ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.worldmarathonmajors.com
  6. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Before the World Athletics Championships in Berlin - the end of a dream . August 10, 2010
  7. ^ Finally official: Liliya Shobukhova losing three Chicago Marathon titles. Retrieved August 7, 2015 .
  8. Leichtathletik.de: No hat trick - Irina Mikitenko gives up . April 25, 2010
  9. Leichtathletik.de: Irina Mikitenko's foot problems . April 25, 2010
  10. Leichtathletik.de: Irina Mikitenko wins in Vienna . May 30, 2010
  11. Leichtathletik.de: fifth place for Irina Mikitenko in Chicago . October 10, 2010
  12. sport1: Mikitenko with world record in Berlin . September 29, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  13. Leichtathletik.de: The athletes of the year 2008 . January 7, 2009
  14. Leichtathletik.de: The runners of the year have been determined . November 30, 2013
  15. Marathon record holder: Mikitenko ends career . Spiegel Online , September 28, 2014.