Mason Trophy
12 BRATs travelled to Stoke on 17th June to represent the West Midlands in the Mason Trophy. These 12 athletes covered all discipline types (sprints, hurdles, distance, throws and jumps) which goes to show the great depth of strength within the club which is a credit to the coaches as well as the athletes. The West Midlands were one of 10 counties being represented and each team could enter 2 athletes per age group per event. U17 Dylan Teasdale ran a PB of 9.34.16 in the 3000m where he finished 9th and U17 George Astbury a PB of 5.01.47 in the 1500m S/C where he finished 5th. U15 Alba Smith-Pena came 7th in her heat and 16th overall in the 1500m. U17 Nancy Foster-Jones ran in both the 100m and 200m where she was 2nd in both heats and 5th and 4th overall. U15 Kenyah Reddin also ran the 100m…
New Course Record for Nya Williams
U11 Nya Williams is going from strength to strength with her running. She took part in the Keswick Mountain Festival 5km trail run on 20th May and out of 107 competitors, Nya finished first lady overall in a time of 21:57. Unfortunately she was unable to collect the 1st prize crate of beer but she was very happy with her trophy and trail running backpack. A week later on 27th May she ran a new PB at the Brueton Parkrun in a time of 20.26 and broke the course record in the process – a record which had stood for 9 years! She also had a fantastic night at the Sphinx AC Mid Week 5 in Coventry War Memorial Park where she took part in the junior race and was overall winner. She received a trophy, medal and delicious bag of sweets and said that there was a great atmosphere…
County Championships
The weekend of 13th – 14th May saw the County Championships take place and the BRAT Juniors were out in force, (despite it being the weekend before GCSE’s and A’ Levels), with 111 entries for Warwickshire and 2 for Worcestershire! Whilst the older athletes took part in individual events, the Under 11 Boys and Girls competed in a Quadrathon – a combined event comprising of a 75m sprint, long jump, howler throw and 600m race. For many of the U11 athletes this was their first competition and every single competitor gave maximum effort with lots of PBs to show for it! The boys’ event took place on the Saturday with 4 BRAT entrants across a field of 18. After some very close races and huge long jump PBs, the event finished with a fantastic first place for Elliot Jones and second place for Charlie Keenan. The girls’…
BRAT Athletes @ Junior Great Birmingham Run
A strong BRAT contingent entered the Junior Great Birmingham Run which was open to 9-15 year olds. The new 2.5km course started and finished in the Smithfield area of the city centre. Elliot Dawlatly, in excellent form of late, confidently set the pace early on and led throughout the race until tantalizingly being caught in the last few metres. He was followed by a succession of high finishing BRAT runners with Ollie Knight placing 3rd and Josh Taylor 4th. In the girls’ race Alba Smith-Pena finished 3rd in a strong field and raised over £500 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital! Other notable performances were in the 9-11 year old age categories with Anaadh Singh and Joseph Baker 2nd and 3rd respectively in the boys’ race and Orla Woodman 3rd in the girls’ race. Full results can be found here. Write-up courtesy of Andy Knight.
Racing in Taiwan
James Drakeford
BRAT Juniors Represent Birmingham at the Regional Sportshall Final!
Following on from our attendance in the league matches over the last few months we were delighted to have 10 BRAT athletes selected to represent Team Birmingham at the regional final on Sunday 19th March. There was a fantastic atmosphere in North Solihull Sports Centre as 4 teams from across the wider West Midlands region came together in the regional final – Birmingham, Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire The day kicked off with the Under 11s events and BRAT representation came from Elliot Jones and Kai Macmillan in the Birmingham boys team. There was plenty of action in the track events, with some very close races including some new events that did not form part of the league meetings – well done Kai for tackling the Over/Under relay without any prior knowledge of what it involved! On the field events, there were jumps, throws and balancing all taking place.…
Good luck to BRAT juniors in upcoming national XC champs!
The junior cross-country league season was completed in February, but the biggest events of the XC season are yet to come. There were a number of county/regional races that took place over December and January, attracting the best athletes from Birmingham and the surrounding area. As a result of outstanding performances in these regional championships, we have had a number of athletes selected for the inter-counties XC championships and the English Schools XC championships. In both of these events, athletes will represent their county in a national level competition. Make no mistake about it, attaining county selection is a major achievements, so we’d like to congratulate the following athletes on their selection and give them a big “good luck” ahead of their upcoming races: Inter Counties XC Champs – Saturday March 11th – Prestwold Hall: U13G: Amira Emery U15B: Jack Price U15G: Alba Smith-Pena U17M: Dylan Teasdale, George Astbury, Morgan…
Club History
As a result of previous mergers by former athletics clubs in Birmingham and Black Country area, the club has over 100 years of athletics heritage. Here is a brief synopsis of our history:
Junior Cross-Country Season Summary
For the second year in a row we have finished 5th overall team out of 21 teams in total, so a lot to feel positive about. We went into the last race in fourth position but narrowly lost that position. Looking back over the previous few years we have finished: 21/22 – 5th 19/20 – 12th 18/19 – 15th 17/18 – 19th It’s pleasing to see that we have consolidated our improvement from last season. During the XC series we had 63, 58 ,57, 51 and 56 athletes competing across the five races. So there has been a massive improvement in the number of athletes that are turning out to compete which has made the difference. We can’t emphasise enough the importance that you all make to the overall team position so you all contribute to the success of the club if you win or finish further down the field! …
BRAT Club Fundraising
BRAT club raises money for Birmingham Childrens Hospital
Warley Woods – Junior XC
The third fixture of the league was held at Warley Woods on a hilly course and again the club produced some great performances. Although we had 57 athletes finishing, we had a number of athletes unable to compete due to illness which affected a number of teams. The U11s bucked that trend with a superb 3rd place in the girls and 5th in the boys. The other teams in the top 10 were U17M 3rd, U13B 4th, U15G 7th and U13G 9th. Overall, we finished 6th on the day but with two teams very close in front. We still retain our 4th position overall after the third fixture so plenty of time to consolidate this over the final two fixtures. Thank you to the team managers, Jort for bringing the tent and the parents and not forgetting the athletes for doing all the hard work! Looking forward to seeing you…