Bremer (19) was a national junior 5000m champion two years ago and also travelled with the New Zealand youth team to Tasmania for the Australian under-20 cross-country championships.
He was then hit with a string of stress fractures, which curtailed his progress in middle-distance and cross-country running.
By his own admission, he has been something of a ''ghost runner'' since and was only able to mark his return on Saturday through the expertise of physiotherapist Helen Littleworth, to whom he gives a lot of credit for getting him back into competition.
He absorbed the early pace set by Otago off-road champion Neale McLanachan (Leith), who led through the first half of the journey. Bremer was content to sit behind him like a nagging mother-in-law.
Once Bremer decided to take the lead, he settled into a solid pace with his effortless style, running the final lap in 1min 8sec, to finish 16sec clear of McLanachan in 9min 14.32sec.
Bremer began running as a 10-year-old under the expert guidance of coaching maestro Jim Baird, before switching to a Lydiard methodology with Richard Barker five years ago.
''I plan to just roll with the mileage and gear up for my first year as a senior, and see where it takes me,'' Bremer said.
Another athlete making a return to competition after a three-year layoff was Paralympian Jess Hamill (Taieri).
Hamill (24), who has cerebral palsy, won the silver medal in the F32 shot put at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. She returned to action in the women's F34 shot put on Saturday, after opting to take time out from the sport in 2011.
A change of rules governing her disability has meant Hamill has had to make a few adjustments to her technique, but she was satisfied with a distance of 6.52m.
Another promising athlete with cerebral palsy is Shaun Markham (Hill City-University), who never fails to impress each week in F36 shot put and discus competition.
Markham's goals are not so much focused on the sporting fields as they are on furthering his education.
On Saturday, Markham (19) put the shot out to 3.15m and threw the discus 10.83m. He has personal bests of 3.36m in the shot put and 11.60m in discus.
Among other highlights of the meeting were:
• Brent Cheshire (Caversham) cleared 1.90m to win the senior men's high jump.
• Keith Hutton (Ariki) broke his third Otago age-group record in as many weeks, clocking 29.62sec in the men's 65-69 grade 200m. Over recent weeks, Hutton has established Otago record marks in the pentathlon and javelin.
• Tony Tan (Hill City-University) stopped the clock at 8.17sec to establish an Otago men's 45-49 record in the 60m.
• Alison Newall set a personal best of 8.11m when she won the open women's triple jump.
• Young North Otago athlete Schuler Orr (14) stamped his authority on the meeting, winning the open men's long jump with a personal best of 5.61m, the men's 15-17 grade high jump with 1.55m and the men's 15-17 100m in 12.04sec. He also clocked the fastest 60m sprint, in 7.61sec.
