Bronze a pain for Brouwer
An injured foot didn’t prevent Braeden Brouwer from coming home with a medal from the OFSAA track and field championships earlier this month.
The 18-year-old West Niagara Secondary School graduate was awarded a bronze medal in the senior boys 110-metre hurdles at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations meet in Windsor, the second straight year he has won bronze in that event.
Brouwer managed to medal despite injuring his foot in a preliminary race.
“It affected it a little bit but I just took a lot of Tylenol,” he smiled.
Brouwer ran a personal best time of 13.74 seconds to place third. The gold medal winner ran 13.63, the silver medal winner 13.72.
“The goal was to win,” the Grimsby native said. “I was winning and then I lost. Other guys beat me but I was winning by a good amount.
“It was super close.”
Asked how much it bothered him to be so close to a gold, Brouwer didn’t hesitate for a second.
“A lot,” he said. “I’m just going to work harder and to try and win Nationals. There’s not really much I can do because it’s my last OFSAA.”
Brouwer also managed a PB in an earlier preliminary qualifying heat.
“Braeden ran two personal bests at OFSAA, despite an issue with his foot, and it really speaks to his ability to turn it on and deliver a performance when he needs to,” Thorold Elite Track Club coach Steven Fife said.
Fife said Brouwer’s lack of top-notch competition locally could have also played a factor.
“One of the challenges that a high-level athlete can have is that he went the entire season without having a competitive race because nobody was even close to him. When he finally gets to OFSAA and then there are a couple other guys beside him, he isn’t used to that and unfortunately there’s no way to really simulate that feeling besides having competitive races,” Fife said.
Brouwer, who also qualified for OFSAA in the 100 and 200-metre races but was unable to participate due to the injury, was on fire at the Zone 4 meet where he set records in the 100-metre and 200-metre races and 110-hurdles and at SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association) in the 100-metre race and 110-metre hurdles.
“It gave me a lot of confidence,” Brouwer said.
Brouwer began hurdling two years ago at the suggestion of Fife.
“It’s pretty easy. My dad was a hurdler too so it’s little bit in me. I’m fast too and pretty flexible,” he said.
Brouwer’s achievements have landed him a track scholarship to the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota where he will major in computer engineering.
“It’s pretty exciting. I’m going to try and get better next year and win,” he said.
Brouwer paid a visit to the school, located in Minneapolis, and came away impressed.
“It had a super nice campus and sick facilities,” he said. “Really cool.”
Brouwer is now focused on qualifying for U20 World Championships with Team Canada and trying to win Nationals in Montreal.
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