Record number of BRAT Juniors qualify for the National English Schools Cross Country Championships
Record number of BRAT Juniors qualify for the National English Schools Cross Country Championships. The outstanding recent performances of our juniors in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League (wmyaccl) have been backed up by another strong showing in the West Midlands Schools XC Championships held in Warley Woods on 22 Jan 2022. On a beautiful sunny day, we had 15 BRAT juniors competing on a hilly course in 4 age groups that differ from those in the league (minor Y7, junior Y8/9, inter Y10/11, and senior Y12/13). In the junior/inter/senior categories a top 6 finish guarantees qualification for the prestigious National English Schools Cross Country Championships at Hop Farm in Kent on 19 March. Athletes in the minor category can enter the primary schools’ National Championships in Prestwold Hall on March 26, but no qualification is needed. In the minor girls’ race Amira finished 5th, while in the…
Adam Peacock runs a new PB over 1500m at Cardiff
Congratulations to Adam Peacock, who ran a new personal best (PB) of 3:47.35 at the indoor meeting held on the 23rd Jan 2022 in Cardiff. Starting at the back of the field, Adam ran a controlled race and came through to finish in 3rd, smashing his own indoor club record set just two week’s ago. His time currently ranks him 7th fastest in the UK over 1500m
BRAT Men’s XC team set new record
The BRAT men’s XC team continued their marvellous season with another impressive performance at Warley Woods last Saturday, in the third race of the Birmingham League. With 40 BRAT finishers this was by some margin the biggest Club turnout we have ever seen in a senior XC race, and it made for an amazing atmosphere on the day; before, during and after the race. No other club had anywhere near this turnout, in fact 4 of the clubs didn’t finish B teams.Results on the day saw the BRAT A team finish 5th and we now lie 4th overall out of 16 teams. We are only 25 points off third place so all to play for in the final race at Leamington. The B team finished an impressive 4th on the day and also lie 4th overall. Full results are at https://www.birminghamccleague.co.uk/images/stories/bdccl/articlepdfs/XC_League_Archive/2021-22/2022-01-15-M1.pdf Many thanks to all who turned out to run or support, there seemed to be BRAT…
New Indoor Club Record for Adam Peacock
2022 got off to a positive start for Adam Peacock at the British Milers Club indoor Grand Prix at Sheffield on Sunday 9th January. Adam broke the long-standing club indoor record for 1500m, running 3:50.78, finishing in 5th place. The record, previously held by Matthew Clarkson, set in 1989 at RAF Cosford, had stood for over 32 years! Adam Peacock
Updated Athletics Club Rankings
A Happy New Year to all our members. 2021 has seen some remarkable personal improvements in athletics and the final list of 2021 performances for the club is now available to view, together with updated all-time club records and age-group best performance lists. In 2021, there were 3 new overall club records broken and 32 club age-best performances. There were also an amazing number of personal best performances following the club’s return from the 2nd lockdown from COVID-19 in March 2021. Access to the rankings lists is HERE. They can also be found in the ‘Club Info’ tab on the home page. If we have missed any performances from the year or from the other ranking lists, please let us know at rankings@bratclub.co.uk We have also been trying to discover performances from the past, including from our previous ancestor clubs. If you know of anyone or have any old results…
Ladies Cross Country
The women are so happy to have XC back and have been off to a great start in the first two league races. The team finished 4th at the first race near Crewe and 6th at the second race in Stratford, putting them 5th overall. Thanks to all the ladies who have taken part so far. We are always looking for more recruits so please get in touch if you’d like to join the team email: bratladiesxc@gmail.com The next race is the county champs on 8th Jan and we could really do with some seniors joining the Warwickshire team. We currently have a Warwickshire masters team plus an U20 and a strong senior Worcestershire team. Entries close this week!
Junior Awards Ceremony
Due to the ongoing Covid restrictions it was not possible to hold the traditional indoor Awards Evening for all BRAT members. Not to be disheartened, the Junior’s held an outdoor event at the track following their Sunday morning training session. The weather held, the Christmas tunes played, mince pies were eaten and the applause kept coming. A special thanks goes out to Julie Smith for organising the event, Martin Ludford for getting the trophies engraved and set-up and Gordon Ainsley for collating all the results. A collection was made for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where £100 was raised. Before the awards were announced, Gordon highlighted all the members who had broken Club records – 28 had been broken in total, some multiple times! Congratulations to the following:- Club Record Breakers: James Marshall (Masters) 8 x all at 800m Lucie Tait-Harris (Masters) 7 from 800m to 5000m Karl Welborn (Masters) 5 from…
Outstanding Club Performances at Telford 10km
The Telford 10km has the reputation of fast times and it did not disappoint on Sunday 12th December 2021. There were 14 club members who raced and there were some remarkable performances, lead by Morgan Hill, setting a new U17 club age-best time of 37:00 Becki Timmings also ran 35:44, to rank her equal 3rd fastest Ladies club member ever! Club Results: Adam Peacock (SM) 30:56 – Equal 7th Fastest all-time club Man Paddy Townsend (SM) 31:38 Karl Welborn (M40) 31:56 – 3rd fastest all-time club M40 Dan Robinson (M40) 32:06 – 4th fastest all-time club M40 Will McKemey (SM) 32:31 – PB Adam Hill (M35) 33:06 Ben Carrington (M35) 34:23 Conor Farrell (M35) 35:10 – PB Thanos Tsolakis (M45) 35:47 Becki Timmings (SW) 35:44 – Equal 3rd fastest all-time Lady Rachel Gifford (SW) 36:15 – 8th fastest all-time Lady Paul Coughlan (M50) 36:37 – 4th fastest all-time club M50 Morgan Hill (U17) 37:00 – U17 Club age-best performance Damian Cartland (M45) 37:25 – PB Paul Jolliffe…
Farewell Ruth
We’re sad to say that after 6 years of coaching the BRAT throwers, Ruth Briggs is moving on. She is relocating to pastures new in Somerset, and we wish her all the best in her new venture. BRAT are extremely grateful to Ruth for everything she has contributed to the club – not only has she coached discus, shot and hammer, she has also officiated as a Level 2 Field Official at numerous events and been instrumental in organising the AAA Awards for the athletes. Ruth started coaching BRATs in 2015 on Friday nights at the High Performance Centre. Her son Jonathan was being coached by Paul Chapman and he had also been training Ruth in throwing techniques for as long as Jonathan had been with him. It was his firm belief that parents could and should be enabled to help athletes in competition contexts if no coach could be…
Wrexham Final Fling & Much Wenlock Olympic Games
The weekend of 25th & 26th September was the Junior BRATs last chance to improve on their PBs and alter their standings in the Club Championships before the season came to a close. U15 Jamie Callaghan travelled to Wrexham to take part in a throwathon which consisted of hammer, discus, shot and javelin. Jamie finished 3rd overall with 1833 points, just 42 points behind 1st place. He won 2 x silvers and 2 x bronzes and threw 3 PBs, with his best being a hammer throw of 42.29m – just 19cm off of the club record, and a throw which moved him up to 9th in the UK rankings! The other BRATs took part in the Much Wenlock Olympic Games on Sunday 26th. U11’s William Tinsley, Tiernan Clark, Jake Holford, Oshi Knox, Millie Gordon-Maclean and Josephine Colclough all ran PBs in the 75m with Oshi securing a bronze medal with…
Brewer Games Cheltenham 18th September 2021
With the end of the season fast approaching this was the penultimate weekend for the BRAT Juniors to improve on their PBs and move up in the Club Championships. It was an early start for some with the first events kicking off at 10:00, and a long day for those competing in the Quadrathons. U15 Ruby Smith improved on her discus PB with a throw of 20.32 to move her up to a Standard 4 and U15 Isabelle Carruthers threw a PB in the shot with 7.70. U15 Isla O’Connor improved on her long jump by a whopping 65cm to jump a PB of 4.46m and U15 Jake Gosnall jumped a further 5cm in the High Jump to clear 1.60m. Jake also ran a PB in the 300m in a time of 39.7 and U15 May Smith ran a PB in the 800m in a time of 2.38.8. U15 Jamie…
Leamington Open 11th September
A number of the BRAT Juniors headed to Leamington on 11th September to take part in their Open. The U11’s and U13’s were involved in the Quadrathon, but unfortunately as it was the Leamington Club Championships they could only compete as guests and were not eligible for any medals. Had they been able to, U11 Tiernan Clark would have received Gold with his 180 points which was 29 points clear of 2nd place!! Sebastien Emery came 4th and Will Tinsley 9th. It was U13 Matthew Morris’ 1st ever open where he took part in the 100m, 800m, javelin and long jump and jumped an impressive 4.10m. He too came 1st along with Amira Emery in the U13 girls quadrathon where she ran a PB in the 800m of 2.51.8 Also taking part in the U13 Quadrathon was Samuel Vaughan who pipped Amira to the line in the 800m in a…