Former Olds resident Andreas Troschke finished third at the Canadian National Track and Field Championships, held July 25-28 in Montreal.“I’m quite happy with that result,” he said during an interview.
This was the first year that Troschke, 20, competed in the senior category and weight in hammer throw, so he found himself competing against many men who were older, bigger and stronger.
“It’s a bit intimidating, to be sure, just because (they’re) bigger and older, definitely. It’s hard not to notice that when you’re sitting next to them all waiting to get marched out to compete,” Troschke said.
“But I was excited by it. I like a challenge and I like proving that I’m worthy of competing at a high level. So it was exciting to me; it was a great opportunity.”
Troschke says the throw that propelled him into third place flew more than 58 metres.
“I was only about a metre off of second place and that was what I was really trying to chase in the final couple of rounds,” he said.
“The number 1 thrower is a man by the name of Adam Keenan and he’s currently the 36th ranked thrower in the world. He won with a 74 so he won by quite a large margin.”
Troschke is confident he can get to that level with a lot of training.
“I can see a lot of things in my throws and in my body that I can improve. I’d like to increase all my lifts and there’s definite areas where I need to improve technically in the coming years,” he said.
“It sounds like a huge gap, but if I can improve on just a few things and keep grinding away, I think I can see huge leaps and bounds coming in the next season or so; the next 12-month period.”
Troschke, a former Olds High School student, is now studying at the University of Lethbridge and is ranked fourth in USports men’s weight throw.
He is now getting ready to represent Alberta at the Western Canada Summer Games in Swift Current Aug. 15-18.
At the Western Canada Summer Games Troschke will face some strong competition, but he doesn’t expect to face the same level of competition as he did in Montreal.
"I think it’s actually a fun way to end the year, because as much as I love high level competition and competing against bigger, stronger, older guys, it’s always nice when there’s less competition and you can kind of relax and not worry about anyone else, you know? Just focus on what I need to do,” he said.
He’ll be pretty busy.
“To fill out the team roster — we didn’t have a lot of throwers this year — so I’m doing hammer and then discus and then shotput,” he said.
