Dewdney’s Alex Brent came home from Winnipeg with a little extra hardware earlier this month.
The canoe/kayak athlete earned a pair of bronze medals at the recent Canada Summer Games in the Manitoba capital, and had three other strong showings in races at the event.
Brent picked up bronze medals in both the K1 1,000 metres and K1 5000 m, two fourth-place finishes in the K2 500 m and 1000 m respectively, and a fifth place in the K1 500 m.
The Dewdney native earned his first bronze on Aug. 8, winning his heat in the K1 1000 m preliminary race with a time of 3:39.27. The final later that day saw Brent (3:38.32) narrowly finish behind Nova Scotia’s Zane Clarke (3:36.28) and Quebec’s Vincent Jourdenais (3:37.22) to place third.
Brent earned his second bronze medal on Aug. 11, finishing the K1 5000 m with a time of 19:16.32. Manitoba’s Mitchell Barran won gold, and Nova Scotia’s Mark Marschalko picked up silver.
Brent advanced to the finals in all three other races, ultimately finishing out of medal contention.
The 20-year-old trains out of the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club, and has also competed at the BC Summer Games, Youth Olympic Games and the Western Canada Summer Games. He excelled at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games, winning eight gold medals and three silvers and was selected as the B.C. flag bearer.
More recently, he won two bronzes and one silver medal at the 2016 National Championships.