It is a widely acknowledged fact that athlete’s coach contributes half of his or her success. But in the marathon these days, the percentage of this contribution is even higher. Everyone now is talking about Irina Mikitenko’s phenomenal result in Berlin. Before my interview with Irina herself, I would like to present impressions of her coach, Igor Osmak, who guided former Kazakh runner to the new German record, the best time of all ex-USSR female runners, and the fourth fastest result in the history of women marathon. Already a year ago, Igor shocked everyone by saying that Irina had the potential to run much faster than 2:20. At that time, his statement was met by specialists with understandable scepticism.
“Even now, I insist that Irina has not realize her full potential”, Ukrainian coach announced boldly this time. – Although at this level, many conditions need to coincide perfectly, - her form, the weather, competitors, and of course, good fortune. Like this time, for example, this led to fantastic result”.
- Igor, then what is so special about Irina? What has allowed her after Berlin, to be so far ahead of all our other runners?
- I wouldn’t call it anything special. It is a harmony of great talent, hardworking and wonderful human traits.
- Let’s change the question then. What has allowed your tandem to achieve such heights?
- Ah, we have the full trust and mutual understanding in the “athlete-coach” link. And it exists, despite Irina’s huge base of experience, as she already participated in three Olympics.
- So, if we focus on the fact that there is still an untapped reserve, as mentioned above, what is it?
- As lame as it sounds, injuries are the main culprit of the elite, and not only the elite, athletes. Even though I think that main volume of work was completed this time, we had to adjust a lot of essential key sessions, which affected Irina’s form. So, the reserves do exist, and by the way, they are significant.
- Igor, good luck in the future starts. All of us, sincere and dedicated fans, are awaiting your new victories!
- Thank you!
As I already emphasized many times, I’m considering all Russian-speaking community as one unit. And we are sincerely celebrating success of these athletes, whether they represent Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, or, in this case, Germany. All these borders do not exist in our interaction.
Irina Mikitenko: “My coach believed in me than I believed in myself”
Unfortunately, there exists a stereotype “The victory fully belongs to the athlete, but his failure is always his coach’s fault”.
Therefore, moving from conversation with Igor Osmak to talking with Irina Mikitenko, I was surprised (in a good way) and shocked that in her very first answer she had such warm words for her coach, who led her to this huge success.
“Indeed, already a year ago, when we were preparing for the first marathon, Igor was always saying that I’m ready to run faster than 2:20, - began our conversation the new German record holder in women’s marathon. – But, honestly, I was afraid to even think about such times. But Igor was constantly trying to convince me, and I am very grateful for that. In general, for every female athlete, 2:20 are magical numbers. Everyone dreams of breaking it, but only very few have done it so far.
- But this time, you and your coach must have planned to break 2:20, haven’t you?
- To tell you the truth, we planned a little slower, around 2:21, but when my African competitors started flying 3-4 seconds faster per kilometre than we planned, and then the first half was 40 seconds faster, I began believing, little by little, that I would be able to break magical 2:20. Although I want to note, that, as in my first two marathons, I was running with some fear – will I have enough for the finish? Because of this, I started working really hard only after 37 km. Before this mark, myself and my husband, Alexander who was following me on the bike, were constantly repeating “stay calm, control the tempo, the real marathon will start 5 km before the finish”. As a result, I did not fully realize my potential again, as I had strength left at the end.
- Irina, you pre-empted my next question – where will your improvement come from, aside from proper pacing?
- First, from getting more experience. This was only my third marathon. So, with each race, I’m getting wiser. But experience is only a matter of time. And of course, one of the main reserves, - I did not approach this race at my peak. The plan was to peak for the Olympics, but an injury interfered, some time was lost on treatment, so now it was essentially a second peak.
- But what happened before Beijing, can you elaborate?
- The usual happened. We did not fully understand the extent of the injury and I continued to train with pain in my hip joint. Most likely, some muscles got weaker after the birth of my second child, despite our attention to core strength training. There was a chain reaction, with my back and the entire left side becoming problematic. Treatment took a long time, and so we decided not to race in the Olympics and focus our preparation on Berlin.
- …where all your preparation resulted in such an impressive result. Don’t you feel now that you should have switched to road racing sooner after leaving the track?
(Irina paused for a while.)
- You see, I am starting to forget Russian words (Irina smiled somewhat shyly). “You don’t seek good from good” (Russian proverb). First, I had thoughts that I was couple of years too late. But now I understand that everything happens in its own time. I gained speed and leg strength on the track, and I will still have other marathons. As I said earlier, this was only my third race. I hope I can still improve my time, although as my coach said, there have to be so many factors in place.
- Irina, during our conversation last year, you said that your husband Alexander, was not recognized as your coach in Germany. What is the situation like now? Are you training together?
- Alexander is my club coach only on paper, as before. He continues to work at a plant. He completed his running career a few years ago and took over all housekeeping duties at home. I am very grateful to him. It is enough for me that he accompanies me often on his bike, as was the case in this marathon, giving me sort of psychological peace of mind.
- Irina, and now the logical conclusion, - what are your next plans?
- Now we’re going to take a break, and the next marathon will in the spring in London. And after that – World Championships.
- Irina, thanks for the cordial conversation, and good luck in the future!
- Thank you very much!
And here I would like to make a note, maybe as a lesson to our young hopefuls, who often become star-struck even before accomplishing much. Irina, with all her fame, is very open and sincere person, and she was that way long before her unbelievable success. She is still the same person now, and it is very obvious when talking to her. Something to learn for the next generation!
www.runners.ru. Victor Zhdanov
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