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 Championships and reached the final at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He was also a relay silver medallist with Europe at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup.

He has a personal best of 45.11 seconds for the distance. His best individual finish is fourth at the European Athletics Championships in 2014.

Personal life Krzewina was born on 10 October 1989 in Kruszwica, Poland.

Career Krzewina appeared on the national junior scene in 2007, placing third at the national junior championships in the 400 metres. He dipped under 48 seconds in the event for the first time that year. He won his first international selection at the 2007 European Athletics Junior Championships as part of Poland's 4 × 400 metres relay team. The team (including Jan Ciepiela, Sebastian Porzadny, and Marcin Klaczanski) reached the final, but was disqualified. His first individual international race came the year after at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but he failed to progress beyond the heats. He was again chosen for the relay and he helped a team of Arkadiusz Wojno, Michał Pietrzak, and Rafał Omelko take fifth in the final. The 2009 season marked a career progression as he won the Polish under-23 title with a personal best of 46.66 seconds. He also won a relay gold medal at the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships, running alongside Marcin Sobiech, Pietrzak, and Ciepiela. where the Polish team of Kacper Kozłowski, Piotr Wiaderek, Krzewina and Marcin Marciniszyn ran in the relay. The team finished their heat in 3:01.84 minutes (the fastest for the country that year and of Krzewina's career) but this was not enough to make the final. An appearance at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships followed but the team faltered in the relay final and came in sixth (last) place. He achieved a season's best of 46.55 seconds outdoors, but did not compete internationally as a poor performance at the national championships meant he was excluded from the relay team that competed at the 2012 Olympics. This marked ranked him fourth in the European rankings for that season. He repeated that time at the Polish Championships to claim his first national outdoor title in the 400 metres. Having missed the heats, he was drafted in as the last man for the Polish team in the 4 × 400 m relay final. Starting his leg in fourth place, he narrowly overhauled Thomas Jordier in the final straight to win the bronze medals for Poland (setting a personal relay best of 2:59.85 minutes in the process). His fourth in the individual event led to his inclusion on the European relay team for the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup and (teaming up with European rivals Conrad Williams, Sanford, and Martyn Rooney) he helped the team to silver behind the African team.

Krzewina and his teammates qualified to the 4 × 400 metres relay final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Polish quartet of Karol Zalewski, Rafał Omelko, Łukasz Krawczuk and Krzewina broke the world indoor record in the men's 4 × 400 m with a stunning finish to the final track event of the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham. On the last straight, Krzewina overtook the anchor of the American team, which lead from the start, and achieved the greatest success in his career.

In October 2022, Krzewina was issued with a 15-month ban backdated set to expire in December 2023 for an anti-doping rule violation for whereabouts failures.

Competition record 1Disqualified in the final