Summerfield Smash 2021 Results
The results of the BRAT Summerfield Smash are out, check them out here:
England U15 / U17 Championships
U15 Lily Smith travelled to Sportcity in Manchester on Sunday 8th August for the England U15 / U17 Championships to take part in the Long Jump. To qualify for the competition an athlete has to have achieved a certain standard, and Lily was the only BRAT to have made the grade. Lily went on to finish 6th with a jump of 5.10m, and there was only 40cm separating the top 6 jumpers! Lily was thrilled with the result and it was a fantastic experience. Huge congratulations.
Warwickshire & Worcestershire County Championships
What a weekend! Whilst Team GB are bringing home the medals from Tokyo, the BRAT athletes have been doing likewise at the Warwickshire and Worcestershire County Championships. Our junior athletes have turned out in force, with the help of a handful of seniors, and all have put in a series of excellent performances over the weekend of Saturday 31st July / Sunday 1st August. With all of the major clubs across the two counties being represented across all disciplines and age groups from under 13s up to seniors (and a handful of vets) these were good quality events to take part in. In total the BRAT medal haul of 11 Golds, 7 silver and 6 bronze shows that we are one of the premier clubs in the Midlands, if not in the country and our under 13s and 15s accounted for an incredible 8 of these golds! BRAT medal winners…
Cheltenham Midsummer Open 28th July
6 BRATs travelled to Cheltenham for their final Midsummer Open Event on 28th July. The forecast had promised a pleasant evening, but the events were delayed by 15 minutes due to a torrential downpour. U15’s Jamie Callaghan and Jacob Gosnall were in the 300m with Jacob running a storming race to knock 0.6 seconds off of his PB for a time of 40.5. V40 James Marshall was running the 400m for the first time since 2018 where he ran a SB of 54.2, and SEN Adam Peacock ran a PB of 51.9 Adam was also participating in the 800m alongside SEN Chris Pickering who ran a PB of 2.00.2 and SEN Paul Joliffe. Photos courtesy of Toby Gosnall
Track & Field League (Senior) 11th July Solihull
Second League Match Report Before a quick run through of the second league meeting of the season, there is some good news to report regarding the first match – we won! After all the officials points had been taken into account BRAT overhauled Birchfield to claim top spot – well done to all BRAT officials. The second meeting was however always going to be a tougher affair for us as we lost so many female athletes who were either injured or having to isolate as they had been sent home from school. We therefore travelled to Solihull with just seven senior women. Thankfully we were able to put out a very strong men’s team – who came out on top on the day but the inevitable lack of female entries meant that overall we could only manage third out of the five teams. There were however, a number of BRAT…
Birmingham Uni Open 14th July
14th July saw the final Birmingham Track & Field Open of the season, and a number of the Junior BRATS took advantage of the events aimed at the younger age group. 15 of the 26 runners in the 150m were BRATS, with all 15 of them running a PB!! 6 of the 10 runners in the 600m were also BRATS with U13 Noor Bailey and U11 Millie Gordon-Maclean achieving PBs. BRATs also took over the Long Jump pit, with 8 of the 12 athletes taking part – U15 Jacob Gosnall, U15 May Smith and Noor Bailey all jumped PBs 3 BRATs entered throwing events, with both U13 Evie Rendell and U13 Dylan Gargett achieving PBs in the javelin. A fantastic evening for all. Toby Gosnall was on hand to capture the action again, and the photos can be viewed on the BRAT Flickr page – Birmingham Uni Open 14th July…
English Schools’ Athletic Association 11th July 2021
U15 Jamie Callaghan was selected by English Schools’ Athletic Association to represent the West Midlands in the hammer at the National Finals in Manchester on 11th July. This year they selected the Top 16 from Power of 10 in individual events to represent their counties at the final. Jamie finished 9th overall, just missing out on the second round for a further three throws. It was a fantastic experience which has spurred him on to train even harder for next year. Well done Jamie
1st Place for BRAT @ Stourport (Heart of England League) – 3rd July 2021
The Heart of England League is known as the “friendly league” and was formed in 1978 to give Midland based clubs local competition to a broader range of athletes including, under 11s. There are 28 clubs, and normally they compete in 3 matches across 4 divisions with promotion and relegation at the end of the season. However, this year (due to the pandemic), it’s been regionalised to reduce travel, and there is no promotion or relegation. This did not affect the youngsters though who gave it their all and finished first out of 7 clubs!! This was the 1st Heart of England BRAT were able to compete in since July 2019, and was eagerly anticipated. The last year has been a difficult year for many athletics clubs and BRAT is no exception to this. The overwhelming majority of our U11s and U13s had never taken part in a club competition…
West Midlands Schools Trials
30 Junior BRATs took part in the West Midlands Schools Trials in Sutton on 19th June, hoping to qualify for the English Schools on 11th July in Manchester. Between them they competed in 10 different events and collectively there were a staggering 35 PBs and 4 SBs which is a phenomenal achievement. The most popular event seemed to be the 100m where 15 different athletes ran, and this accounted for 11 PBs and 2 SBs! U15 Jamie Keene’s 800m time of 2.08.05 has ranked him 29th in the country, and Lily Smith’s Long Jump of 5.05m has ranked her 17th. Well done to all athletes who took part, and the results can be seen below.
Senior T&F League B’Ham Uni 20/06/21
Back home at last… Never mind ‘football coming home’, athletics finally found its way back home for the BRAT team on Sunday 20th June as we hosted the first senior league match of the season – the first league match of any kind since August 2019 and our first home meeting since 2013! The rain just about kept off for us as teams from Birchfield, Royal Sutton Coldfield, Solihull and Bromsgrove descended upon the university track where a small army of BRAT volunteers had helped to make sure everything was ready on time. On a day of ‘firsts’ BRAT had a number of winners; Jenny Scott (great to see Jenny back with a winning double in the Discus A and Javelin B), Adam Peacock (800 A), Lewis Carr (800 B), Becki Timmings (3000 A), Lucie Tait-Harris (3000 B), Khari Mitchell-Lewis (110 hurdles A), Dan Hindle (High jump A), Eva Gunn…
WELCOME TO 2021
The BRAT Club wishes everyone a happy and safe new year, we are looking forward to returning to a more normal routine later in the year. Unfortunately for now with Birmingham in tier 4 this means that all of our adult sessions are currently suspended. Tier 3 in Worcestershire also means the Bromsgrove swim session has been cancelled until further notice. We are hoping that we can continue with junior athletics sessions, and the coaches will communicate this info directly to parents and athletes going forwards. For now then, we are back to solo and virtual training. Zwift has been great for us, providing some real focus and club atmosphere on the discord chat, so that will continue. Again, the club would like to thank all the coaches, leaders, volunteers and members who put so much into this club and have kept such a strong spirit going throughout the past…