Bruna Genovese
Home: Volpago Del Montello, Italy
Age: 24
Personal best: 2:31:06 (Venice, 1999)

A fixture on the Italian road racing circuit, this young talent is considered a marathon novice. At the 1999 Venice race, she intended to run 30K, but ended up finishing third with a personal best. Genovese's half-marathon best (71:56) came last month in Napoli. Her coach is Salvatore Bettiol, the 1988 New York runner-up.