Fast track to the top
18 October 2000 - Manuela Bosco qualified for the women’s 100m hurdles semi-finals in Santiago. Laura Arcoleo interviewed her earlier this year and here is her profile as featured in IAAF Magazine, March 2000.
Bosco may be a name already familiar to many members of the Athletics Family. After all, the Italian scientist Carmelo Bosco is one of the world’s most famous specialists on sports physiology and works for the Laboratory for Sports Biomechanics & Exercise in Jyvaskyla, Finland. In 1998, he was one of the Expert Lecturers at the International Athletic Foundation's Seminar "Human Performances in Athletics - Limits and Possibilities," and spoke about the Influence of Testosterone on Strength.
But the name Bosco is now becoming familiar to statisticians and athletic fans as well. In the last two years, Manuela Bosco, the eldest daughter of Professor Carmelo, has dramatically improved her personal bests to 13.34 for the 100m hurdles and 8.12 for the 60m hurdles event.
"You want to feature my daughter in the IAAF Magazine!" replies an ecstatic father in reply to our phone call. "Yes, sure, I’ll give you her mobile phone number. You will see she speaks five languages and is very nice …"
The young Bosco is certainly fun, joking that she started athletics "aged 3" before adding, "Seriously, I can’t remember when I really started because I have been in contact with the world of athletics since I was a little girl. I took part in my first competition aged 7 and started training seriously at 13."
Bosco made her first international appearance in 1998 on the occasion of the IAAF World Junior Championships in Annecy, France. She was 16. With her face painted light blue and white, the colours of her country, and her hair tied in bunches with light blue bands, she clocked 13.77 to finish second in her heat and automatically qualify for the final.
"When I lined up for the final I was very nervous. I was already very happy to have qualified for the final but I still wanted to perform well." says the teenager in perfect Italian.
"I remember that it was raining and that the starter recalled four or five false starts. It is not easy to cope with pressure when you are young but you can learn well from it for the future. That’s experience!"
After finishing an excellent fifth in that final she lined up with her team-mates and ran the first leg of the 4x100m relay. "Unfortunately we dropped the baton. But still, I had made two World Championship finals aged just 16. That’s not bad!"
In Annecy, Carmelo was in the stands carefully watching his daughter. When people were introduced to him he would proudly announce: "I’m here to support my daughter. She’s already run 13.70. She’s strong, you’ll see. She is going to become somebody in track and field."
Bosco competes for Finland, despite having a Sicilian father, because her mother is Finnish and she is currently based there. "It is easier this way. Maybe when I finish school and I can move I’ll think about competing for Italy."
Speaking from her home in Jyväskjlä, Bosco is preparing for the 2000 season despite frightful weather conditions. "Today is quite warm. It is minus 2 but a couple of days ago we had minus 20 degrees!"
In 1999, Bosco finished third at the European Junior Championships in Riga, improving her personal best to 13.34. She also helped Finland’s 4x100m relay team win a silver medal.
She was eligible to compete in the first edition of the IAAF World Youth Championships but decided to concentrate on senior competition instead.
"The deadline for the Finnish Federation to select the National team for Seville coincided with the European Junior Championships in Riga. I had not been selected but after the final, my father, who was in the stands, received a call from my uncle saying that the Finnish officials had called to say I had been selected for Seville. I remember that I started crying when my father told me the news."
And Bosco didn’t disappoint in Seville. She equalled her personal best in the heats and qualified for the second round. "I also got sick in Seville. I had a fever and lost 5 kilos. I think it was some kind of a virus."
But Seville remains an unforgettable experience for a young girl who declares that her favourite country is Spain. "People were so kind there. I really did enjoy it. You could have fun in Seville any time of the day and night."
Bosco would like to become an artist - "maybe in the theatre", she says and now attends a special sports school which allows her to train every day. Her success is less surprising when you look closely at her schedule. "My father prepares my strength training programme. I also have two Italian coaches who prepare periodical training programmes that they send me and then there is my local coach who looks after my day by day sessions."
Bosco, who spent the first five years of her life in the Italian city of Formia, still travels to Italy every year for about three months of intensive training. Her younger sister Carla has already ran 14.33 aged 15, so the Bosco family clearly has talent to burn.
The Olympics remain a dream for Manuela. "My main objective this year is the IAAF World Junior Championships in Santiago de Chile." She will definitely be the hot favourite for that event. "If my Federation decides to select me for the Olympic team then that would be great news. I think that I need to run around 13.10 to make the Olympic team. We’ll see what happens," says Bosco. Might she yet change her mind about her favourite country soon? "I have never been to Australia, but I think I’d like it!"
