The sport in Romania is below sea level and when it comes to athletic it is below the ocean floor. Believe me. Something very clear was explained by Alexandru Corneschi in this article. I know, it is in Romanian, but you can always use Google translate, because the topics are the same in every country like Romania, where sporting performance literally means shit.
The Athletic Romanian Federation is not able at least to publish on Facebook the information that Alexandru Corneschi finished the Hamburg marathon with 2:14:01, an outstanding output, considering he was 19th, second European, three seconds short of a runner from Sweden and fifth excluding top runners from East Africa (Kenya-Ethiopia-Djibouti-Somalia).
Alexandru Corneschi, 3:10 minutes / kilometer in Hamburg
In fact, the FRA published on their valuable Facebook page only one week after the achievement of Corneschi when he won the Athens Half-marathon. OK, seem small details, but this is a solid proof that this organism doesn’t help in any way sportsmen. Leaving it aside, let’s discuss about the outstanding performance and how Corneschi cut off more than 4 minutes from his marathon best result in 6 months.
For those who are not familiar with this time, a 3:10 minutes / kilometer pace for a European runner it is outstanding, especially for a European which needs to handle his performance almost by himself. I know Alex very well and I know he’s very ambitious and he will ultimately achieve his biggest goal: the Summer Olympics!
Corneschi needs to break a record that dates from… 1978 (!!!)
To qualify as a Romanian marathoner to this competition looks to me pure fiction. We did have Marius Ionescu participated and even Nicolae Soare, but back then, the qualifying time was 2:19. Now it is 2:11:30, which is unbelievable hard for any runner in Romania. Actually, the national marathon male record is only 2:12:30, one minute short from the actual qualifying time and it was set in… 1978 (!!!!).
So, 44 years ago, another solid proof in terms of how the federation helped in improving the performance in Romania. Now, I am 100% sure, Alex Corneschi will eventually beat these two numbers, because qualifying at the Olympics is his aim. At 30 years he is very young for this running discipline.
The Olympics qualifying time, brutal for Romania
My bet is, inf act, that he will qualify for at least two Summer Olympics. But is this something easy? Hell no! Considering, for example, this Hamburg Marathon and all top races, 90% of the top marathon runners come either from East Africa (some of the guys are running for European countries), North Africa or Japan. This is it.
Europeans rarely are able to run below 2:05. In Romania, given the numbers above, it is basically impossible. And if, let’s say, Alex will obtain the qualifying time in 2023, as I think, it will mean that the national record will be beaten after 45 years. And I guess it will last afterwards forever, excluding, maybe, bringing in, as Romanians, runners from Tanzania, Uganda, Eritrea or countries from the region. Naturally, from our soil, nobody will beat this.
Same situation in all sports, nothing comes for the future!
You may think that I am pessimist, but I am not. To be a top-class runner you need top conditions, not up to 1.100 lei / month with which not even a dog can survive in a normal European country. It is for real our last chance to have a top long-distance runner at the Olympics. Nobody is willing to start from scratch and if you do, in the end you must go and move to another country, were you have far better conditions, respect and so on.
To be honest, the athletics is not the only sport in this situation in Romania, but all of them are in the same condition or even worse. Every sportsman / sportswoman that made it was purely by chance, genetics, hard work, mostly self-made. Like Alex. As he said: “At a training session, in 2021, I’ve fainted on the grass. My coach slapped my face, asked me if I was OK and reminded me that I have only 30 seconds until the next interval”. This is sacrifice!
Photo: Facebook Alexandru Corneschi