Photo credit: Facebook - Via Transilvanica

Tibi Useriu finishes Yukon Arctic Ultra in second place

By Romania Journal Last updated Feb 7, 2020

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Tibi Uşeriu has finished the Yukon Arctic Ultra in second place on Thursday evening, after seven days of race. Swiss Fabian Imfeld ranked first, having a six-hour advance in front of Useriu.

The Yukon Arctic Ultra took place on a 483-km route in northern Canada under extreme weather conditions.

21 runners started the race on January 30, but only Useriu and Imfeld managed to end it.

In a Facebook post Tibi confessed after the race that it was hard for him to return in Canada for the Arctic Marathon after he abandoned the race last year due to severe frostbites.

He also revealed he has two frostbites and a coughing that he had hidden away from the doctors who were checking on him, adding that the race “has emotionally knocked him down”.

“I made it to the finish line, although this path seemed endless at some point. I thank you very much for your support. Without your good thoughts, I swear I would have been lost along the way. Thank you, Tasuleasa, thank you, Via Transilvanica, to all those who sent me here as ambassador.

At this hour, I have some few simple thoughts, and I say: Sometimes, it seems hard to come back somewhere just because you forgot to turn off the light. But to come back there where you suffered a trauma, it’s a little bit harder.

I jump to one short conclusion before falling into deep sleep: Let’s not forget that our dreams, each of one’s, small or big dreams, they do count. Without ideals, I am afraid we would disappear. So, let’s not abandon our dreams no matter what. Thank you, I see you all home“, Uşeriu wrote.

In 2018 Tiberiu Useriu won the “6633 Arctic Ultra”, for the second year in a row, despite the serious frostbites.

Useriu’s exciting life-from the robber breaking out from two prisons up to the endurance athlete

45-year-old Useriu wrote a book about his life, revealing his youth as a thief, marked by armed robberies, stolen cars in only three minutes and lots of burglaries. He was imprisoned abroad and broke out from two prisons, including one in Germany where nobody managed to escape from, has been hunted down by the Interpol.

“I started to commit armed robberies at 22 and I got caught when I was 25 years old. I have been sentenced to 23 years in jail ( 13 years in Germany and nine years in Austria) for the crimes. I was sought after, I escaped from prison from 2006 and 2008. At some point the European community cumulated these sentences in 2006 and I had to serve the higher one,” Useriu recounted in his book “27 steps”, launched three years ago.

According to the book, Tiberiu was a sheepman’s servant, military in the Romanian army, political asylum-seeker in Germany, pizza man in Italy, bodyguard for a Serbian mob guy, witness in a shell game gallery in Gran Canaria and robber: “I escaped from two prisons. Hunted by the Interpol, I became client of a maximum security penitentiary and thus, I missed the call from my own youth for almost 10 years, completely locked, all alone, between four very thick white walls.”

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