New Club Record for 10 Miles at Portsmouth
The Club record for 10 Miles was previously set by Brian McEvoy in April 1990 at Wolverhampton. He ran 49:46 and his record has stood for over 32 years, until last week (16th October) in Portsmouth, when Charlie Davis ran 49:18 to smash Brian’s performance by nearly 30 seconds! Charlie finished 9th in the race and was ‘very satisfied’ with the run, not even knowing he had broken the Club record. The 10 Miles is seldom raced in today’s road calendar which now tends to focus more on the half-marathon distance but the longevity of Brian’s record stood as a testament to his sheer hard work and determination. When Brian, who is still a club member, found out about his record finally been broken, he reflected that ‘the record would be broken one day.’ Congratulations to Charlie on a brilliant performance! Check out the club rankings HERE
A great start to the XC season for BRAT juniors!
Taking a step back from standout individual and team performances, it’s worth mentioning how the scoring works for the cross-country league. Each race has 5 scoring athletes apart from the u17 categories that have 3 scoring athletes. Typically, each athlete will obtain between 100-200 points depending on their finishing position. If we don’t field a full team of scorers in each race, we will lose at least 100 points (but typically more- 1st 200pts 50th 151pts) per athlete missing, because our team is not complete. So, what was particularly pleasing yesterday, was that we fielded a FULL TEAM in each and every age category, for perhaps the first time ever. Yes, that means that all of you that turned up yesterday played a part in what was a very good start to the cross-country season. My memories of doing cross-country as a junior were those cold and rainy days when…
Women’s Cross Country
Cross Country season is fast approaching, and the cross country team are looking for athletes to take part, it’s a great opportunity to meet people from across the club too.
BRAT Field Fest
Due to losing the track to redevelopment and subsequently Covid striking, BRAT last held a licenced athletics open event on June 26th 2013, so the Field Fest on 11th September was quite a momentous occasion for the club. 65 athletes (including 41 BRATs) from 17 different clubs took part in the 12 field events which were laid on, resulting in 107 entries overall on the day. Athletes had travelled from as far afield as Aberdare, Windsor and Trafford to take part! The U11’s took part in a triathlon which comprised of Long Jump, Howler and Speedbounce (and medals), while the U13’s – U20’s could do up to three events which consisted of Long Jump, High Jump, Javelin, Discus, Hammer and Shot. Although the day started with a deep set autumnal mist, the weather held and it was a pleasant temperature. The coffee van was early and the ice-cream van got…
Autumn Road Relays Sign-up
The Autumn Road Relay’s are coming up and we are looking for people to sign up, for one of biggest events in the BRAT calendar.
CHAMPIONS!!
Champions! On Saturday 13th August the BRAT track & field senior team went up to Stoke for the final league meeting of the season. Our task was to finish in the top three on the day – if we did so we would be guaranteed promotion back to the top flight for the first time in a decade. However, we wanted more, we wanted to go up as champions especially after all the hard work everyone has put in this season. The biggest problem we faced wasn’t so much the heat but our lack of available athletes – we went without 18 regular competitors due to work, holidays and a fixture clash with the Midland Under 17 championships! By hook and crook, we somehow managed to get enough competitors to fill the majority of the events and throughout a scorching hot afternoon the BRAT athletes fought for…
Heart of England Division 3 – Victory for BRAT!
What a performance and what a season. 3 league meetings and 3 wins. Let’s not forget, we had to completely rebuild and start afresh following the difficult COVID shutdowns. We have come a long way since those rule of 6 sessions at Rowheath playing fields! Anyway, on to last (last!) weekend’s results. It really is a terrible idea of the league to schedule a junior league meeting at the start of the summer holidays. A long list of athletes were either on holiday or at the commonwealth games. What was really pleasing for me, as team manager, is that a whole group of athletes came out to compete in the league for the first time, amazing! From those new athletes, T’maya Tweede-Robinson came out with 2 1st places (shot put A & javelin B) and 2nd in the high jump B. Louisa Bando was first time league competitor, securing 2…
BRATS CARRY THE BATON
Great to see so many BRATS carrying the Baton for the Commonwealth Games throughout Birmingham. https://bratclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/8.mp4
Senior League – Meet 3 – Telford 17th July 2022
BRAT scorch to victory in Telford… The BRAT track and field team secured their second win on the trot in the Midlands Senior League on Sunday 17th July in blazing hot conditions. There were some discussions held during the week as to whether the meeting should go ahead given the weather forecast – indeed the Southern league didn’t proceed with their matches. Thankfully the decision to run the meeting proved to be the correct one, especially as it meant that the BRAT athletes could once again, show what they are made of whatever the weather! Our A string winners on the day were JP Stolberg in the steeplechase, Dan Robinson in the 3000m (Dan is unbeaten so far this season), Bonheur Tshibola in the 100 hurdles, a double for Jenny Scott in the hammer and discus and our women’s 4×100 relay team. In the B string Paul Joliffe in the…
ESAA TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Thursday 7th July our 4 U17 BRATs boarded the coach with the rest of the West Midlands athletes and headed to Manchester for the 2022 English Schools’ Athletics Championships. They would stay for two nights as a team, supporting each other along the way. Our athletes all competed on Friday 8th, with Nathaniel also taking part in the 4 x 100m relay on the Saturday. At the Sport City Stadium Nathaniel was 1st up in Heat 1 of the 100m where he ran 11.74. Lily was next in the Long Jump where she came 12th with a jump of 5.12m. Bonheur was in the 300m Hurdles where she came 4th in Heat 2 in a PB time of 45.69 and also set a new BRAT Club record. She was 10th overall, just missing out on the finals by 0.27s. Over at Longford Park (as not all long throws could take…
World Masters Championships
James Colclough has been competing in the World Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland this week, in the M40 400m. He started off with an easy win in the heat in 52.47s; third fastest of the heats. In the semifinal in pouring rain he came 2nd in an M40 club best time of 51.49s, again for 3rd overall in the semis. In the final, he came a magnificent 4th; again improving his M40 club best time to 50.99s, his personal fastest since his senior days in 2011 and only 0.7s off his absolute best in 2003! He also ran the first leg of the 4×100 where they finished 2nd, but were subsequently disqualified because the 3rd leg runner still had his hand on the baton as the 4th leg runner exited the box. Unfortunately the 4th leg runner started off far too early and had to stop to take the baton. The…
BRAT Juniors Win @ Heart of England League
The recent Heart of England competition at Stourport was a day of miracles. Firstly, the weekend began and was punctuated by torrential downpours. Alas, those competing on the Saturday at the Mason Trophy may have got pretty wet! Not only did we manage to escape the rain, but the sprinters also enjoyed a home straight tailwind, it NEVER happens. I imagine the back straight wasn’t quite so kind! After our absolute demolition of the opposition in the first match back in April, where we won by 350 points, I decided to shuffle the team around. We had a large number of athletes that hadn’t competed in the league before and quite a lot that hadn’t ever competed on the track before. Big pressure, well done guys. I was therefore a bit shocked and, I have to admit, a bit worried when some of the other teams arrived on coaches, unfurled…