Keep it going! Great response so far. Now one of the great Clonliffe Club men: Sergiu Ciobanu:
Bio: Sergiu Ciobanu 36year old, Long distance runner, married with kids, working as a physical therapist.
What age did you take up the sport of athletics and why? At 18-19 to get fitter for wrestling training and soccer
When and why did you join Clonliffe Harriers? Joined in 2006 as this was the year i first came to Ireland and was looking for an athletic club to train with.
What is your favourite training workout? Long intervals with short recovery
And your least favourite? Hills
What’s your favourite race / athletics meet Dublin marathon/ National Cross
What is your most cherished or proudest moment in athletics? (as athlete and/or coach) When i made my first Irish cap senior team for Euro cross in 2015 as this was 10y later after i first competed at this championship with my native Moldova
What was your worst injury – and how did you get over it? Hamstring tendinopathy which lasted for ages. Lots of strengthening and stretches helped.
(For a coach or seasoned athlete) What piece of advice would you give an aspiring athlete? It takes time to get to your best, be patient and take easy days serious and not to feel sorry about yourself on those tough sessions.
Do you have any memorable or funny story from Clonliffe Harriers that you could share? (the censorship board may review!) When first time met Gladys Cooper when i was looking to join Clonliffe days after arriving in Ireland i wrote few sentences and the last one was ‘sorry i don’t speak english’ and her answer was ‘ you have a very good english’ little she knew that i was running out of all the words i had in english
Of course you can’t exclude Gary’s banter when traveling as a team and him always looking for his passport at the bottom of his bags at the airport.
What’s your favourite meal? A. For competition – Pasta ( carbonara or with chicken) nice desert B. Outside competition – Fish and chips, but always plenty of vegetables.
Who is your sporting ‘hero’? (athletics or other)A. Irish B. International –
What’s your favourite…?A. Film – James Bond (all) B. Song or Album – Follow your fire. C. Book – The girl with the dragon tattoo
What’s your favourite holiday destination? Mallorca
What’s your favourite hobby / activity outside athletics? Cars, gardening, DIY, fishing, reading.
If you were Seb Coe what changes would you implement to improve our sport? More tv coverage, focus on more athletics stars so young generation can have good examples to follow. XC olympic sport either winter or summer.Athletes who dedicate their time to sport to get rewarded. Life post athletics career. More random drug test at all levels for a clean sport throughout. Not sure if it’s a good idea to mention all the time about drugs in our sport as this puts people off. Just do the job and life banned drug cheats so there won’t be mentioned every time we watch athletics like such and such had a ban etc
How would your non-athlete friends describe you? (in 3 words) Loyal, curious, friendly.
What is your next running / athletics goal? (whenever normality returns!) Try to achieve an olympic standard 2.11.30 Run my best Dublin marathon yet
How are you motivating yourself to continue training at these difficult times? I have no prob with motivation. I’m used to have blocks as a full time athlete. I’m not a full time athlete now but i believe that full time athletes have 70% of their time on lockdown train, eat and sleep.