Author Archives: Colin Bailey

Author: Richard Gray I have also shown teams B-H results from The Midland 6 Stage which were not in the previous report. The perfect non-storm greeted us at Sutton. Around 15 degrees; hidden sun; wind at 2mph and a gale force 3mph gust. PBs beckoned! We fielded two teams who had qualified in great style; only the second time having two teams in what is the highest quality team race of the year. There was a great mood, only marred by late changes which had left the B team short of a leg. Manager should have sorted this; so this was on B teams minds. Off we went, the A team fronted by Dan Robinson. Always reliable, but with a theoretically weakened team due to inevitable marathon damage, we needed quicker times to match The Midland performance. Indeed, Dan was 6 seconds quicker. We were on the right path. Tactically…

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Here is a short report on our superb performance. It is short without the banter as I do not know some of the athletes well enough, and performances are limited. There are so many teams that I have only reported in any detail for A,B; so apologies for this and any errors. It was wonderful to gather again at Sutton after being locked away for so long. A lovely day greeted us, perhaps a bit warm, but the same for everyone. With all the juniors, the women’s teams, and 8 men’s teams, it was quite a gathering. Just needed a barbie to set the day up. On the other hand, perhaps too much temptation for late leg athletes.  This is our biggest turnout for any relay, easily surpassing all our rivals. There were quite a few last minute changes, necessitating swapping same legs between teams for safety of avoiding a…

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We will be at Sutton Park again on Saturday for The National Road Relays. This is a prestigious and high-quality event. Same courses, 5.88k for the men, 4.33k for the women and 3.88k for the juniors! It would be great to see support as present at The Midlands 6 Stage a couple of weeks back. It really does make a difference. The schedule is as follows (we have teams in all!): 11:00 – U13 boys 11:05 – U13 girls 12:00 – U15 boys 12:05 – U15 girls 12:50 – U17 men 12:55 – U17 women 14:00 – Men 14:10 – Women It’s “The National”, so more emphasis on front loading with a good sprint at the end.  It’s only the second time we have ever qualified two teams in the men’s race. A great achievement, so let’s enjoy this. Saturday is looking dry and as warm as you would want…

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A slight preamble before getting into how the BRAT juniors got on… Personally, I have ran a few variations of the seniors road relays over the past few years, and when I heard about the junior road relays, I was under the impression that the junior route wouldn’t be in any way similar to the senior route, alas! THAT HILL! Yes, THAT HILL! After a lovely 100m of downhill from the start, you are essentially faced with a climb that goes on for the best part of a kilometer. Another thing to mention here, the juniors, all age groups (right down to our 11 year olds) run 3.88km, it really is quite a challenge. My view is that the organizers enjoy pain, and enjoy inflicting pain, and enjoy watching everyone run hard on the endless undulations, with a nice bit of lactic acid already in the legs after the first…

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Warwickshire Under 11 ChampionshipsLeamington25 Aug 21 The U11s have done lots of quadrathlon practice over the summer, so it was great to see our young BRAT juniors taking those valuable skills with them to competition. The quadrathlon at Leamington was the Warwickshire U11 county championships, a great competition for our young crew. Oliver Knight took the county title with an impressive score of 237 points, 15 points ahead of second place. An impressive throw of 35m in the howler secured the win, after impressive performances of 12.0s, 3.32m and 1:59.9 respectively in the 75m, long jump and 600m. Well done Olly! Will Tinsley and Mustopha Bailey also both performed strongly, recording various PBs across multiple events. As for the girls, lots of our athletes were also in the first year of the U11 age group and therefore can have another go next year. From the year 4 girls, Amber Stevens…

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A day after the success of the Heart of England match, a few of the BRAT youngsters made their way down to Cheltenham for another opportunity to compete. The weather was mostly kind, however a couple of torrential downpours made for some interesting conditions! Amber Stevens came away with an impressive haul of 5 medals, with a stand-out performance of 3:16m in the U10 long jump. Hiba Bailey took part in her first ever competition, narrowly missing out on a medal in the U10 600m with a 4th place finish. Great to see Amber and Hiba all smiles! In the U12s, Millie Gordon-MacLean and Mustopha Bailey were in their first year in the slightly strange age groupings. Millie was so close to a medal, with 2 4th place finishes in the long jump and the speed bounce. Millie also recorded a very respectable time of 15.5s in the 100m in…

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