Thomas Briels
Personal information
Born (1987-08-23) 23 August 1987
Wilrijk, Belgium
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight 71 kg (157 lb)
Playing position Forward
Club information
Current club Braxgata
Youth career
Dragons
Senior career
Years Team
0000–2008 Dragons
2008–2015 Oranje Zwart
2015–2017 Dragons
2018–2023 Oranje-Rood
2023–present Braxgata
National team
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2021 Belgium 359 (40)
Medal record
Men's field hockey
Representing  Belgium
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place2020 TokyoTeam
Silver medal – second place2016 Rio de JaneiroTeam
World Cup
Gold medal – first place2018 Bhubaneswar
EuroHockey Championship
Gold medal – first place2019 Antwerp
Silver medal – second place2013 Boom
Silver medal – second place2017 Amstelveen
Bronze medal – third place2007 Manchester
Bronze medal – third place2021 Amstelveen

Thomas Briels (born 23 August 1987) is a Belgian field hockey player who plays as a forward for Braxgata. He played a total of 359 times for the Belgium national team from 2006 until 2021.

Club career

Briels started playing at Dragons when he was around five years old. In 2008, he signed a contract with the Dutch club Oranje Zwart in Eindhoven. He left Oranje Zwart in 2015 to return to Dragons.[1] He returned to Eindhoven in 2018, when he signed for Oranje-Rood.[2] After 13 combined years at Oranje Zwart and Oranje-Rood, he left Eindhoven to play for Braxgata in Boom, Belgium, where he signed a contract for two years.[3][4]

International career

Briels plays for the national team, for whom he had gathered 84 caps by 2009. In 2007 he qualified with Belgium for the 2008 Olympic tournament in Beijing where they would end up ninth. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed for the national team in the men's tournament where they eventually finished fifth.[5] With Belgium he became European vice-champion at the 2013 European Championship on home ground in Boom.

At the 2016 Olympics, he was part of the Belgian team which won the silver medal. He was the captain of the Belgian team that won the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 EuroHockey Championship.[6] On 25 May 2021, he was selected as the captain for the squad for the 2021 EuroHockey Championship.[7] After the European Championship he was named as a reserve for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[8] Despite being named as a reserve he still played in seven of the eight games in the tournament where they won Belgium its first Olympic hockey gold. After the Olympics he announced his retirement from international hockey.[9]

Honours

Club

Oranje Zwart
Dragons

International

Belgium

References

  1. ↑ Hesen, Eric (14 April 2015). "Hockeyer Thomas Briels vertrekt bij Oranje Zwart en keert terug naar België". www.omroepbrabant.nl (in Dutch). Omroep Brabant. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  2. ↑ Weber, Natasja (28 April 2017). "Hockeyer Thomas Briels terug bij Oranje-Rood". www.ed.nl (in Dutch). Eindhovens Dagblad. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  3. ↑ "Braxgata lokt Thomas Briels terug naar de Belgische competitie". sporza.be (in Dutch). Sporza. 5 April 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  4. ↑ van Esseveldt, Luuk (5 April 2023). "Einde van een tijdperk: hockeyer Thomas Briels vertrekt na dit seizoen bij Oranje-Rood". ed.nl (in Dutch). Eindhovens Dagblad. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  5. ↑ "Thomas Briels". London2012.com. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  6. ↑ "Goud in eigen land! De Red Lions winnen na het WK nu ook het EK". sporza.be (in Dutch). Sporza. 24 August 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  7. ↑ "Selectie Red Panthers en Red Lions voor het Europees Kampioenschap aangekondigd". hockey.be (in Dutch). 25 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  8. ↑ "Red Lions – Olympische selection aangekondigd!". hockey.be (in Dutch). 24 June 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  9. ↑ Vinel, Thibaut (5 August 2021). "Thomas Briels a vécu son dernier match avec les Red Lions : "Il est temps de laisser la place aux jeunes"". lalibre.be (in French). La Libre. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
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