Rafał Omelko

Rafał Omelko
Łukasz Krawczuk (middle) in Birmingham 2018
nation	Poland
birthday	16th January 1989 (age 31)
place of birth	Wroclaw , Poland
size	195 cm
Weight	82 kg
Career
discipline	400 meter run
Best performance	45.14 s
society	MKS-MOS Wrocław (2005–2008) AZS-AWF Wrocław (since 2009)
Trainer	Marek Rożej (until 2017) Jacek Skrzypiński (since 2017)
status	active
Medal table
Indoor world championships 1 × 0 × 0 × European championships 0 × 2 × 0 × European Indoor Championships 1 × 2 × 1 × Summer Universiade 0 × 0 × 2 × U23 European Championships 0 × 1 × 0 ×
Indoor world championships gold Birmingham 2018 4 × 400 m  European championships silver Zurich 2014 4 × 400 m silver Amsterdam 2016 4 × 400 m  European Indoor Championships silver Prague 2015 4 × 400 m bronze Prague 2015 400 m gold Belgrade 2017 4 × 400 m silver Belgrade 2017 400 m  Universiade bronze Gwangju 2015 4 × 400 m bronze Taipei 2017 400 m  U23 European Championships silver Ostrava 2011 4 × 400 m
last change: April 17, 2020

Rafał Omelko (born January 16, 1989 in Wroclaw ) is a Polish sprinter who specializes in the 400-meter run and is particularly successful with the Polish 4-by-400-meter relay.

Athletic career

Rafał Omelko gained his first international experience in 2008 when he finished fifth with the Polish 4 x 400 meter relay in 3: 08.65 min at the Junior World Championships in Bydgoszcz . In 2010 he qualified in the 400 meter hurdles for the European Championships in Barcelona , but retired there with 52.54 seconds in the first round. The following year he was used in the relay in the relay at the U23 European Championships in Ostrava and was therefore awarded the silver medal. In 2013 he originally won the bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg together with Michał Pietrzak , Łukasz Domagała and Grzegorz Sobinski , but were disqualified after the run for unsportsmanlike conduct. He then took part in the Summer Universiade in Kazan for the first time and took fourth place there over 400 meters in 45.69 s. With the relay he also took part in the World Championships in Moscow , but did not reach the final in 3: 01.73 min. In 2014 he made it to the semi-finals at the indoor world championships in Sopot, Germany, over 400 meters, where he was eliminated with 46.94 seconds and finished fourth in the relay in 3: 04.39 minutes. He then retired from the World Relays in the Bahamas with the season 3: 05.16 minutes in advance. In August he reached the semi-finals at the European Championships in Zurich in the individual competition over 400 meters and was eliminated there with 46.69 seconds. In addition, he won the season together with Łukasz Krawczuk , Kacper Kozłowski and Jakub Krzewina in 2: 59.85 minutes, the silver medal behind the United Kingdom after the Russian team was disqualified for a doping violation.

In 2015 he reached the final at the European Indoor Championships in Prague over 400 meters, where he won the bronze medal in 46.26 seconds behind the Czech Pavel Maslák and Dylan Borlée from Belgium. In addition, he won the 4 x 400 meter relay together with Łukasz Krawczuk, Jakub Krzewina and Karol Zalewski in a new indoor record of 3: 02.97 minutes, the silver medal behind the team from Belgium. He then finished first in the B final at the World Relays in 3: 03.23 min. At the student world games in Gwangju he was eliminated in the individual competition with 46.62 seconds in the semifinals and won the bronze medal behind the teams from the Dominican Republic and Japan in 3: 07.77 minutes. He then took part with the relay at the World Championships in Beijing , where he did not reach the final with 3: 00.72 min . The following year he finished sixth at the European Championships in Amsterdam over 400 meters in 45.67 s and won the 4 x 400 meter relay, consisting of Krawczuk, Kozłowski Krzewina and Omelko in 3: 01.18 min the silver medal behind Belgium. This also qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro , where he was eliminated in the semifinals over 400 meters with 45.28 seconds , while he finished seventh with the relay with 3: 00.50 minutes in the final . In 2017 he won the European Indoor Athletics Championships 2017 in Belgrade together with Krawczuk, Kozłowski and Przemysław Waściński in 3: 06.99 minutes and won the silver medal behind the Czech Maslák in 46.08 seconds in the individual competition. He then finished third at the World Relays in 3: 07.89 minutes in the B final and retired in the 4-by-200-meter relay in 1: 24.78 minutes in advance. In August he reached the semi-finals at the World Championships in London in the individual competition and was eliminated there with 45.37 s, while he was classified in seventh place with the relay with 3: 01.59 min in the final . Only two weeks later he won the bronze medal at the Summer Universiade in Taipei in 45.56 seconds behind the Dominican Luguelín Santos and Yoandys Lescay Pardo from Cuba. In addition, he did not reach the goal with the relay in the run-up.

In 2018 he won the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham in a new world record time of 3: 01.77 minutes together with Zalewski, Krawczuk and Krzewina in front of the favorite teams from the United States and Belgium and was eliminated over 400 meters with 46.39 seconds in the semifinals. At the European Championships in Berlin this time he only took part in the 4 x 400 meter relay and reached fifth place in 3: 02.27 minutes. The following year he finished fourth at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow with the relay in 3: 08.40 min and at the end of September he finished fifth in the mixed relay at the World Championships in Doha with 3: 12.33 min in the final .

In 2016 and 2017 Omelko became Polish champion in the 400-meter run outdoors and in 2014 and 2017 also indoors. In 2017 he won the 4 x 400 meter relay outdoors and in 2017 he won the indoor 200 meter run . He graduated from the Wroclaw Sports University .

Personal bests

• 200 meters: 20.96 (+0.6 m / s), May 20, 2017 in Warsaw
  • 200 meters (hall): 21.14 s, February 19, 2017 in Toruń
• 400 meters: 45.14 s, 7 July 2016 in Amsterdam
  • 400 meters (hall): 46.08 s, March 4, 2017 in Belgrade
• 400 m hurdles: 50.26 s, September 6, 2014 in Krakow

Web links

Commons : Rafał Omelko  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Rafał Omelko in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Rafał Omelko in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dean Hardman: Report: men's 4x400m final - IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018. In: IAAF. March 4, 2018, accessed April 15, 2020 .