Former Olds resident Andreas Troschke has a shot at being named the 2017 Athletics Alberta Junior Athlete of the Year.
The winner will be announced June 16 in Calgary.
"That's the second year in a row this has happened now, so that's a good feeling," he says.
There are many reasons Troschke could win this year.
He was ranked number 3 in the country as a junior hammer thrower in 2017. Troschke also ended up in third place at the Canadian nationals outdoors competition last July.
In addition, in 2017, Troschke was the number 1-ranked indoor weight thrower in Canada.
He achieved the qualifying standard for Junior Pan Am Team last summer. However, he didn't compete there because only two could go and he was third on the list.
Troschke won a bronze medal in the hammer throw during the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg.
Provincially, he was ranked number 1 in both indoor and outdoor competition and was an Alberta Schools Athletic Association high school discuss champion.
"It was a pretty good year, last year," Troschke says.
Troschke competes in both the hammer throw and discus.
"Hammer certainly was the first event that I found real success with and so it's kind of hard not to like something that you're really good at, right." he says.
"It's just a great combination of so many things. It's not just the strongest person that wins, the fastest person that wins. You've got to be strong, fast, technically sound. You have to be so many different things to be a good hammer thrower, and I guess I've got that nice combination to be really good at it."
He says the same applies to throwing the discus.
Troschke is trying now to qualify for a spot on Team Canada to go to the World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland July 10-15.
"I've got about a month now to still make my qualifying window, so we'll see about that," he says.
Athletes hoping to qualify in hammer don't attend a qualifying meet. Instead, they have a set amount of time to throw a certain distance. Troschke has to throw at least 68 metres in order to qualify.
"This past weekend I threw just shy of 64, so I've got a few metres to go yet, but my coach and everyone I've been working with and I think I can do it, so we'll see what I do in the next month or so -- if I can hit it," he says.
Troschke is going into his second year of business management at the University of Lethbridge.
This is his last year as a junior.
"Then I'll be competing with the men next year as a full blown adult," he says.
Troschke plans to keep competing as long as he can.
"I'm not going to put a cap on it," he says. "I'm definitely going to keep doing it all the way through university and then I guess at the end of that I'll have to see where I'm at in terms of nationally and internationally and decide from there.
"The hope is that within the next couple of years I break out into an international calibre athlete and that I'd be able to keep pursuing it after I graduate, but we'll see within the next couple of years how realistic that is.
"I've been blessed with good health and I take good care of my body, so right now I'm in a good spot in terms of that."
