Portrait of Amel Tuka, winner of the bronze medal for B&H at the 800 meter race at the World Championship in Beijing:
Date of Birth: 9 January 1991.
Place of birth: Kakanj
Club: AC Zenica
Coach Gianni Ghidini
Sports career:
Personal record
– 800 m: 1: 42.51
– 400 m: 47.19
Medals won (800 m):
– World Cup, Beijing: Bronze medal
– European Championships U-23, Tampere: Bronze medal
– The Balkan Championship, Eskişehir 2012: Gold medal, Stara Zagora 2013: Silver medal, Pitesti 2014: Bronze medal
– Balkan Indoor Championships Istanbul 2015: Gold medal
Biography of Amel Tuka
His primary disciplines are races on 800 and 400 meters; in both disciplines he holds the national record. He started being engaged in athletics by accident when he participated in the Small Olympic Games in Zenica in 2008 and won the race at 400 meters as a student of 3rd grade of high school “Kemal Kapetanović” from Kakanj. Coach of AC Zenica, Halid Sedić, invited him for an interview, after which Tuka became a member of this club. Since he was living in Kakanj, he had to go to trainings in Zenica every day. Only a few months later, he recorded his first success: he won the 400 and 800 m race at the junior championship of B&H. After this, followed his entrance to the national team and participation in the Balkan Junior Championships in Athletics in Greece, where he won the 3rd place. After this success, he was proclaimed as the new athletic discovery of B&H.
Since 2010, he has been a constant member of the senior national team of B&H on the European Athletics Team Championships Third League and he got to the wining podium on every competition.
In June 2013, he won at the European Athletics Team Championships Third League with the time of 1: 51.11. Month later, at the European Championship U-23, he won the 3rd place in the 800 meters race and set a national record of 1: 46.29.
In 2014, he won the bronze medal at the Balkan Championships in Pitesti (1: 50.67). Later on, on his second European Championship in the senior competition in Zurich, he won the 6th place and set a new national record with time of 1: 46.12.
In 2015, he won the gold medal in the Balkan Indoor Championships in Istanbul (1: 48.86). On the first of July 2015, at the meeting in Velenje, he set a new national record, by winning with result 1: 44.19. He improved the record after only 10 days by winning in Madrid with time 1:43:84. Only 6 days later, in his first performance at a meeting of the Diamond League in his career, he managed to improve personal and national record again by winning in Monaco with a time of 1: 42.51.
This is the best time of the season at the moment, the 32nd result of all-times in the world and the 4th result in Europe.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
