caption event weight height sport birth_date image article_title
irina 2006 mikitenko winning the german 10,000 metres championship in marathon kg 48 1.61 athletics 23 august 1972 irina mikitenko.jpg irina mikitenko

irina mikitenko

irina mikitenko , `` née '' volynskaya -lrb- ; born 23 august 1972 in bakanas , kazakh ssr , soviet union -rrb- , is a kazakhstan-born german long-distance runner who competes in marathons .
she won the berlin marathon in 2008 and is a two-time winner of the london marathon .
she has competed at the summer olympics on four occasions .
mikitenko was a track specialist in the early part of her career , running in distances from 3000 metres to 10,000 metres .
she represented kazakhstan at the 1996 atlanta olympics in the 5000 metres but migrated to germany soon after .
taking up german citizenship , she ran german records in the 3000 m -lrb- 8:30.39 minutes -rrb- and 5000 m -lrb- 14:42.03 minutes -rrb- .
she came close to a major 5000 m medal on several occasions : at the world championships in athletics she was fourth in 1999 and fifth in 2001 , while at the 2000 summer olympics took fifth place .
after a seventh-place finish in the event at the 2004 summer olympics she took a career break to have a child .
upon her return to competition she began focusing on road running events .
the change up to the marathon brought the greatest success of her career .
a run of 2:19:19 hours to win the berlin marathon made her the fourth fastest woman ever at that point .
her win in london the year after in 2:22:11 hours was the fastest that year .
with consistent marathon performances , she secured the world marathon majors title in both 2008 and 2009 .
she entered her first olympic marathon in 2012 and came fourteenth .
