Rafał Omelko (Polish pronunciation: ; born 16 January 1989) is a retired Polish

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

who specialised in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

. He won two medals in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

Career

Omelko finished fourth at the

2013 Summer Universiade The 2013 Summer Universiade, officially known as the XXVII Summer Universiade (russian: XXVII Летняя Универсиада), was held in the city of Kazan, Russia, the most northerly city ever to host a Summer Universiade. Over 10,400 un ...

and reached the semifinals at the 2014 World Indoor Championships. His personal bests in the event are 45.14 seconds outdoors (2016) and 46.08 indoors (2017). Omelko and his teammates qualified to the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, th ...

final at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil. The Polish quartet of

Karol Zalewski Karol Zalewski (Polish pronunciation: ; born 7 August 1993) is a Polish athlete who specialises in the sprinting events. He reached the semifinals of the 2013 World Championships in the 200 metres. He is also the 2013 European U23 champion over ...

, Rafał Omelko,

Łukasz Krawczuk Łukasz Krawczuk (Polish pronunciation: ; born 15 June 1989) is a Polish sprinter specialising in the 400 metres. He has won two medals in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the European Athletics Championships. Career Krawczuk represented his coun ...

Jakub Krzewina Jakub Krzewina (Polish pronunciation: ; born 10 October 1989) is a Polish track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. A frequent competitor for Poland in the 4×400 metres relay, he has won two medals at the European Athletics Ch ...

broke the world indoor record in the men's 4x400m with a stunning finish to the final track event of the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham. Krzewina overtook the leaders from the beginning - Americans on the last straight and achieved the greatest success in their career.

Competition record

^†: Competed only in heat.

References

External links

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Rafał Omelko
at the ''Polski Związek Lekkiej Atletyki'' * * * 1989 births Living people Polish male sprinters Sportspeople from Wrocław World Athletics Championships athletes for Poland European Athletics Championships medalists Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Poland Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade bronze medalists for Poland World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Competitors at the 2013 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2017 Summer Universiade 21st-century Polish people {{Poland-athletics-bio-stub