Jan Werner (athlete)

Jan Werner (25 July 1946 – 21 September 2014) was a Polish sprinter who specialized in the 200 and 400 metres.

Jan Werner

Medal record
Men's athletics
Olympic Games
	1976 Montreal	4 x 400 m relay
European Championships
	1966 Budapest	4 x 400 m relay
	1969 Athens	400 m
	1971 Helsinki	4 x 400 m relay
	1971 Helsinki	400 m
European Indoor Championships
	1968 Madrid	400 m
	1969 Belgrade	400 m
	1971 Sofia	400 m
	1972 Grenoble	400 m
	1969 Belgrade	400 m
	1970 Vienna	400 m

He was born in Brzeziny and represented the club AZS Warszawa.[1] At the 1966 European Championships he finished fourth in the 200 metres and won the 4 x 400 metres relay together with Edmund Borowski, Stanislaw Gredzinski and Andrzej Badeński.[2][3] At the 1967 European Indoor Games he competed in the relay final, but the team did not finish,[4] and at the 1968 European Indoor Games he won a gold medal in the relay.[5]

His first Olympic Games were in 1968. He finished fifth in his semi-final heat in the 400 metres, barely missing out on the final.[1] In the 4 x 400 metres relay he finished fourth together with Stanislaw Gredzinski, Jan Balachowski and Andrzej Badeński.[6] With the same team members he finished fourth in the relay at the 1969 European Championships.[7] In the individual distance he won the gold medal.[8] At the 1969 European Indoor Games he won the 400 metres silver medal behind Balachowski,[9] as well as a relay gold medal.[10]

At the 1970 European Indoor Championships the Polish relay team won silver medals.[11] At the 1971 European Indoor Championships he won a gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay together with Waldemar Korycki, Andrzej Badeński and Jan Balachowski.[12] With the same team members he won a silver medal in the relay at the 1971 European Championships.[13] He won a bronze medal in the individual distance.[8] The same team won the relay at the 1972 European Indoor Championships.[14]

At the 1972 Olympic Games he reached the semi-final in the 400 metres and finished fifth in the relay. At the 1976 Olympic Games he finished eighth in the 400 metres and won a silver medal in the relay, together with Ryszard Podlas, Zbigniew Jaremski and Jerzy Pietrzyk.[1]

He became Polish 200 metres champion in 1967, 1969 and 1971 and 400 metres champion in 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1976.[15] His personal best time in the 400 metres was 45.44 seconds, achieved in 1976.[1] He did also equal the European record in the 200 metres with 20.4 seconds on 3 June 1967.

Died 21 September 2014 in Warsaw.