European Athletics (EAA) – News – Germany’s Mikitenko warms up for London Marathon with win in Brunssum

Irina Mikitenko showed that she is rounding into the good shape ahead of competing at the Virgin London Marathon on 17 April, with a win at the Parelloop 10km race in the Dutch town of Brunssum on Sunday.

The 38-year-old German runner won her first race of the year in 32:06, finishing 39 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, after going clear of the rest of the field from the halfway point.

"The race was planned as a tough training session. I wanted to run the first half in marathon pace and then to try for faster second half," said Mikitenko.

Mikitenko is the second fastest European marathon runner ever with 2:19.19 to her name from the 2008 Berlin Marathon. She also won in London in 2008 and 2009 but suffered a calf injury and had to drop out of last year's race in the British capital just before the halfway point.

She returned to Europe to race in the Netherlands at the weekend after spending several weeks at a training camp in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

"I'm still having this dream about London 2012 in my head. It is a dream about winning the race," said Mikitenko earlier in the year.

By the time of next year's Olympics she will be 40 years old but does not believe that this will be a barrier to success at what would be her fourth Games.

In 2011, she has said that she has two marathons in her plans, London and an undecided autumn race, which means that she is not planning to run the marathon at World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, although she may yet try to qualify for the 10,000m on the track.

Prior to moving up to the marathon in 2007, Mikitenko was an accomplished track athlete, although she has still to win a medal at a major championship.

She finished fourth and fifth over 5,000m at the 1999 and 2001 World Championships as well as fifth and seventh over the same distance at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics Games.

European Athletics (EAA) – News