Female european X winner as Xmas present 

Ten days before the 35the edition of BOclassic, the international New Year's Eve Run in Bozen/Bolzano, the participants' field is getting more and more concrete. Aniko Kalovics will be challenged by the British European X winner Hayley Yelling and the Junior WC winner Sule Utura.  The top favourites in the men's race may also fear Italian's rising star Andrea Lalli.

Aniko Kalovics has to an effort if she really wants to win the BOclassic for a second time after 2006. The Hungarian will be challenged by three serious opponents. After   the local star Silvia Weissteiner communicated her refusal to start due to a back injury, athlete's manager Gianni Demadonna engaged the current European X winner.  The 35-year-old Briton Hayley Yelling had originally ended her career a year ago. On 13 December she sensationally took the gold medal after her first title in 2004. In the 35-year long history of BOclassic, no Briton was able to take the gold medal, so maybe she or Mo Farah in Men's race will be the first.

One of the favourites is also Christelle Daunay. The French finished third in this year's New York Marathon and defeated world record holder Paula Radcliffe. 

BOclassic is not only the stage for the running super stars, but also fort he rising stars of tomorrow. Today's top runner like US American Dathan Ritzenheim (third in 2004) and Ethiopian Meseleh Melkamu (third in 2003) came nearly namelessly on the podest. The same capability has Sule Utura. The 19-year-old Ethiopian is World Junior winner over 5000 m is is a very hot tip for the female run of this year's BOclassic. 

Olympic champion Stefano Baldini is definitely not coming to Bozen/Bolzano this year; however, his supposed legitimate follower in Italy will show up. The 22-year-old Andrea Lalli took last year's U23 cross country running title and thus may also be a threat for the "great three" Edwin Soi, Mo Farah and Serhiy Lebid. So he won yesterday's IAAF Cross in Brussels and left Lebid far behind. Thanks to this engagement,  the BOclassic can already come up ten days before the start with a great participant's list. 

Pictured from left: Aniko Kalovics, winner of 2006 and last year's winner Gulnara Samitova-Galkina (Foto: BOclassic/life-style.it)