The lead-in to the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games wasn’t quite what Erik Petersen had planned.
The 16-year-old, who is heading into Grade 11 at North Battleford Comprehensive High School, was coming off a left leg injury that he sustained in June at the provincial high school track and field championships in Regina.
That hindered his preparations for the Summer Games in Estevan from July 24-27 as he was unable to train for six weeks.
“I only had a week and a half of intense training before the Games to that turned out to be pretty lucky for me,” Petersen said.
“The injury took a great toll on me as I train for this every day. All of a sudden all of that hard work was ruined from just one bad step during a race. When I was out, my main goal was to come back from the injury, keep moving forward and stay focused no matter the circumstance.”
Petersen’s perseverance paid off on July 27 in the 400-metre dash as he picked up the bronze medal with a time of 52.94 seconds.
He was up against two of the top 400m racers in the province in the final as Vaughn Taylor of Regina won the gold medal and Moose Jaw’s Hunter Bosch captured the silver.
“I’ve known Vaughn forever and we always run together,” Petersen said. “Right before I got hurt at the provincials we were both neck-and-neck with one another so I knew that it would be a good race with him.
“Hunter I didn’t know him at all so I was really excited to race with him as well and it turned out to be a pretty good battle with all of three of us.”
Petersen said the most memorable part of the race came at the very end as he was giving everything that he had in his final sprint to the finish line to win a bronze medal.
“I’m just happy I didn’t fall over flat on my face with how hard I was running,” Petersen laughed.
“My face was jiggling and I can’t say my legs felt like something because I couldn’t even feel them as I crossed the line.”
In addition to his bronze medal result, he also had a fifth place result with Rivers West in the sprint medley relay and finished in seventh and 11th place respectively in the 800m and 1500m races during the week.
“The fifth place result was a huge deal for our team,” Petersen said. “Usually Rivers West gets around seventh or eighth place from what we were told, so it was an awesome feeling for us to have a great finish there.
“I wasn’t too impressed with how I did in the two longer races. I didn’t have that pace as I normally do with the lack of time I had training coming off of the injury. The 400m race was probably the best for me that week with it being more of a sprint.”
This marked the first time that Petersen had competed at the Summer Games and he said it was totally different from any track meet that he had been to in the past.
“We were treated like royalty,” Petersen said. “We had people grabbing our luggage, laying out everything for us at the hotel and getting us everything that we needed. It was pretty amazing.
“It was also eye-opening to meet all of the different people in the different sports. At a track and field meet your just focused on your event but at the Summer Games we got to meet all of the baseball and basketball players. To see their views on how they approach their sport was a pretty neat experience.”
With the Summer Games now over, Petersen is now gearing up for a busy next few months.
He will be part of the cross-country, football and track and field teams for NBCHS in addition to his club duties with the Saskatoon Track and Field Club.
