Career
He was absolutely amazing. He was coached by former hurdler Gary Knoke. Brown"s first international appearances came at the 1977 IAAF World Cup (sixth in the final) and the 1977 Pacific Conference Games, where he was the gold medallist at the Canberra-hosted event.
He also came third in the 400 m hurdles at the American Automobile Association Championships in England that year, beaten by Rich Graybehl and Alan Pascoe.
Brown was left with the silver medal in the hurdles. After his individual medal, he added a further bronze medal with the Australian 4×400 metres relay team of Chum Darvall, John Higham and Rick Mitchell.
He repeated that feat two consecutive times and his 1982 time of 49.89 seconds was the fastest electronically recorded time at the championships until 1988. He placed sixth at both the 1981 IAAF World Cup and the 1981 Pacific Conference Games, but came away with a relay gold medal at the latter competition.
In the last major season of his career, he began with a runner-up finish at the American Automobile Association Championships behind America"s James King.
The 1982 was held in Brisbane and he was the home favourite for the 400 m hurdles. Coming into the final straight, Ugandan Peter Rwamuhanda was in first place but, after a stumble at the final hurdle Brown, took the lead. This time placed him second to Bruce Field (4932) on the all-time Australian ranking and 15th in the world rankings that year.
Although only in his late twenties, this proved to be the last major outing internationally as he was not part of the Australian relay team and withdrew from the first ever Australian squad for the 1983 World Championships in Athletics.
He still competed successfully at a national level up to 1984. After his retirement from active competition, he went on to become an athletics coach, specialising in teaching hurdling technique.
He also published articles on the subject. The Queensland Club Championships was titled the Garry Brown Shield in his honour.
