Anikó Kálovics triumphed for the fourth time at the famous Campaccio cross country meeting in the Italian town of San Giorgio su Legnano, the venue of the 2006 SPAR European Cross Country Championships, on Thursday.
The 33 year-old Hungarian runner also completed her hat-trick with a third consecutive success the European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting following on from her wins in 2009 and 2010 as well as an earlier victory in 2004.
Kálovics clocked 20:04 for the 6km women’s race, finishing a comfortable 11 seconds in front of Belgium’s Veerle Dejaeghere while Portugal’s Ana Dias, 10th at the 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships on home soil in Albufeira last month and part of Portugal’s gold medal-winning team, was third in 20:28.
Dejaeghere took the early lead with Kálovics on her shoulder for the first of the three laps but the Hungarian, who spends much of her time based in Italy and races for an Italian club, moved into the front just before the halfway point and had a six-second lead by the bell before stretching it even further over the final 1500m.
“I decided to take part in the Campaccio only after finishing fourth at the Boclassic in Bolzano (the famous New Year’s Eve road race) which boosted my confidence after a difficult period. I have not prepared for cross country and I had only a specific training session,” commented Kálovics, the 2003 SPAR European Cross Country Championships bronze medallist and six times a top 10 finisher at the event, although she missed last month’s Championships in Portugal because she was recovering after a poor run at the Florence Marathon in November.
“I am well known here in Italy and for this reason I was a bit nervous before the race because I felt that I had to win,” she added.
Kenya’s reigning world cross country champion Joseph Ebuya triumphed in 28:15 in the men’s 10km race with the leading European runner being Italy’s home star and former SPAR European Cross Country Championships junior and under 23 champion Andrea Lalli.
Lalli, a courageous leader in the early stages of the race before slipping back, replicated his position from Albufeira last month and finished sixth in 29:29.