Nikolay Chernetsky

Nikolay Chernetsky ran the third leg for the Soviet 4×400 metre team that won gold at the 1980 Olympics. He was also on the Soviet 4x400 relay that won gold at the 1983 World Championships. Besides those two titles, Chernetsky won 400 gold at the 1980 European Indoors and bronze at that meet in 1978, adding 400 silvers at the 1979 World Cup and European Cups. Chernetsky won three Soviet titles – 400 in 1979-80; and 4×400 relay in 1979. After his retirement from sports, Chernetsky worked as an athletics coach and he emigrated to Italy after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, Chernetsky was married to Iolanda Chen, who was the world’s leading female triple jumper in the early 1990s, held the women’s triple jump world record in 1993, and won silver at the 1993 World Championships. Chernetsky’s sister Tatyana Chernetskaya was the leading female modern pentathlete of the world in the 1980s, winning multiple World and European titles.

Personal Best: 400 – 45.12 (1979).