Irina Mikitenko and Raphael Holzdeppe were selected as Germany’s athletes of the year by the readers of the athletics magazine ‘Leichtathletik’ and of the website ‘Leichtathletik.de’. Both won the contest by wide margins.

31.3 % voted for Mikitenko, the London and Berlin Marathon champion who became the first non-African runner to take the World Marathon Majors (WMM) series. With her German record of 2:19:19 from Berlin she is also the only German to head a world list in 2008.

 ‘Leichtathletik’ published the top ranking lists of the vote, in which High Jumper Ariane Friedrich (21.7 %), Javelin Thrower Christina Obergföll (17.0) and Pole Vaulter Silke Spiegelburg (10.3) followed the 36-year-old Mikitenko.

“I am really happy to have been voted Germany’s athlete of the year,” Mikitenko commented from her training camp in Andalusia, Spain, where she is preparing for London’s next edition scheduled for 26 April. “This means a lot to me, because it is nice to see that people are behind me. I had not expected to win this contest since we also had an Olympic medallist (Christina Obergföll) and other athletes who showed very good performances.”

Holzdeppe, Germany’s World junior champion and World junior record holder in the Pole Vault, achieved something unique in Germany’s vote for the athlete of the year: he became the first junior to be selected for the top spot.

The 19-year-old had more than a third of all votes in his favour (33.5 %). High jumper Raúl Spank took second with 18.4 %, with pole vaulter Alexander Straub (16.4) and middle distance runner Carsten Schlangen (10.1) taking the next places.

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF