Jan Werner (athlete)

Jan Werner (born July 25, 1946 in Brzeziny, Skomlin municipality in Powiat Wieluński , Poland; † September 21, 2014 in Warsaw ) was a Polish athlete . In particular, he ran the sprint courses over 200 and 400 m.

Career

Jan Werner competed in his first major international competition at the 1966 European Championships in Budapest. In the 200-meter run , he finished fourth in 21.1 s. In the Polish 4 x 400 meter relay he ran the first lap, Edmund Borowski ran second , then Stanisław Grędziński and at the end Andrzej Badeński ran . After Grędziński had become European champion in the 400-meter run before Badeński , the Polish relay was clearly favored. She won in a new Polish national record of 3: 04.5 minutes before the two German seasons.

At the European Indoor Championships in Madrid in 1968, the Polish 4-by-2-round relay with Waldemar Korycki , Jan Balachowski , Jan Werner and Andrzej Badeński won gold before the relay from the Federal Republic of Germany. In the autumn of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Jan Werner just missed the final of 400 meters as fifth in his semi-finals. The season finale for the Poles was even closer. Behind the relays from the United States and Kenya, the relays from Germany and Poland fought an exciting fight to the finish line, where the German final runner Martin Jellinghaus had a hundredth of a second ahead of Andrzej Badeński. The Polish season was only fourth in 3: 00.58 min.

At the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade in 1969, Jan Werner won silver over 400 meters in 47.4 seconds behind his compatriot Jan Balachowski. In the 4-by-2-round relay Werner, Jan Radomski , Badeński and Balachowski won the title wafer-thin before the relay from the Soviet Union. Outdoors at the European Championships in Athens in 1969 , Jan Werner won single gold in 45.7 s ahead of Frenchman Jean-Claude Nallet and defending champion Grędziński. In the relay, the French won before the relay from the Soviet Union and from the Federal Republic of Germany. The Germans' final runner was again Martin Jellinghaus, who practically intercepted Jan Werner at the finish line. In 3: 03.1 minutes, the Poles finished fourth, just like in Mexico City.

At the European Indoor Championships in Vienna in 1970, the Poles were second in the 4-by-2-round relay behind the relay from the Soviet Union. A year later in Sofia the Poles won the relay, which this time was a real 4-by-400-meter relay. Korycki, Werner, Badeński and Balanowski were 3: 11.1 minutes ahead of the Soviet season. The 1971 European Championships took place in Helsinki in the summer . In the individual competition, Jan Werner won bronze in 45.6 seconds behind the British David Jenkins and the Italian Marcello Fiasconaro . The relay in the lineup Badeński, Balanowski, Korycki and Werner won silver in 3: 03.6 minutes behind the relay from the Federal Republic.

At the European Indoor Championships in Grenoble in 1972, Jan Werner was once again on the podium with the 4-by-2-round relay. Werner, Korycki, Balachowski and Badeński won before the relay from Germany. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Werner reached the semi-finals again in the individual competition, where he was eliminated with 46.26 s. The season reached the finals and finished fifth in 3: 01.05 min.

After five medals with the team and one individual medal at the European Indoor Championships, Jan Werner no longer competed in the hall after 1972. At the European Championships in 1974 there was no Polish 4-by-400-meter relay.

Jan Werner made his last big appearance at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. In the semifinals of the individual competition, Jan Werner set his personal best with 45.44 seconds and qualified for the final. There he was eighth and last in 45.68 s. For a medal, he would have had to undercut his best time by another half a second. In the Polish 4 x 400 meter relay there were new people next to Jan Werner. In the line-up of Jerzy Pietrzyk , Jan Werner, Ryszard Podlas and Zbigniew Jaremski you only had to admit defeat to the US season. In 3: 01.43 min the Poles won silver before the relay from the Federal Republic of Germany.

Jan Werner was Polish champion over 200 meters in 1967, 1969 and 1971 and won the title over 400 meters in 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1976. With a height of 1.90 m, his competition weight was 84 kg.

Top performances

• 200 meters: 20.4 s
• 400 meters: 45.44 s

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics . German Society for Athletics Documentation eV, Berlin 1999.

Web links

• Petro: Jan Werner never żyje. przegladsportowy.pl, September 21, 2014, accessed on September 23, 2014 (Polish).