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…
Mason Trophy 18/06/2022
A record 11 BRATs were selected to compete for their Schools’ County at the Mason Trophy in Stoke on 18th June – 10 for the West Midlands and 1 for Warwickshire. They competed across all disciplines – sprints, distance, hurdles, jumps and throws which shows the diversity of the talent within the club. After the scorching temperatures of the previous week, the day was a tad on the cool and wet side, but this did not dampen the spirits of the youngsters who gave it their all. Bonheur Tshibola, Tywana Kuluziza and Nathaniel Walker had already hit the entry standard for the English Schools in their respective events which is a fantastic achievement. There were 2 BRAT podiums on the day – Jamie Callaghan was 2nd in the hammer with a PB of 44.69m and Bonheur Tshibola was 3rd in the 300m Hurdles with a PB of 46.36. Other results…
Senior League
The return of competitive league athletics… Not since August 2019 have athletes from all over theMidlands region had a competitive league match to look forward to. Finally on22nd May teams from Cannock, Abingdon, Stoke, Telford, Coventry and of courseBRAT, met at the University of Warwick track for the first senior league matchof the 2022 season. Two years with no competition, then two matches in thespace of a fortnight. The second match taking place at Abingdon on Sunday 5June – I therefore thought it would be easier to do a round up of both matchesin a single post. The first thing to say is how wonderful and gratifying itis to see that our junior academy is working. The majority of our ‘new look’senior team is made up from athletes who have all come through our academy – inthe first meeting alone we had eight under 17 women and three under 17…
Warwickshire & Worcestershire Championships
The weekend of 14th / 15th May saw the County Championships take place, and BRAT were represented in both Warwickshire and Worcestershire. There was a full complement of events over the two days; both individual for the older athletes and Quadrathons for the U11’s. Warwickshire saw 4 male entries in the Quad, with Kai Macmillan winning Bronze (just 1 point off 2nd), Elliot Jones 4th, Zac Smith 5th and Sebastian Emery 9th. There were 5 girls, with Josephine Colclough winning Silver, Amber Stevens 4th, Hiba Bailey 9th, and Erin Colclough and Darcy McDaid joint 9th. There were no girls in Worcestershire, but there were 5 boys with Oliver Knight winning Gold, Tiernan Clark 9th, Joseph Baker 10th and Zckai Bibb 11th. Athlete of the weekend award goes to U17 Bonheur Tshibola who scooped 5 medals – 2 Golds in the 300m Hurdles and Shot, Silver in the 80m Hurdles and…
English Schools’ Funding
The English Schools’ Athletic Association relies on sponsorship to enable them to host their events. These events are often the cornerstone of an athlete’s career, and an amazing experience for all who are selected to represent their county. Athletes such as Daley Thompson, Greg Rutherford and Jessica Ennis-Hill have all cited how pivotal ESAA was for them in their journey to success. Unfortunately ESAA have no sponsorship for 2022, and are asking for donations to allow them to put on the Track & Field Championships in 2022. For anyone who would like to donate, please find the Go Fund page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-the-2022-esaa?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer The link to the ESAA site itself is ESAA – English Schools’ Athletic Association where they have the following statement:- As many of you are aware, the ESAA is currently without any sponsors – everyone is suffering from the effects of Covid19 and finding financial help has become more and more…
BRAT Juniors Dominate at First Heart of England League
This was our first real league fixture since 2019. We are currently in division 3 and our aim is to be promoted at the end of the season. We had one fixture (that we won) last year, but that didn’t count towards promotion due to it being a fixture based on location rather than the actual teams in our league. This time around, we were up against Bromsgrove & Redditch, Tamworth, Bicester, Corby and a few other teams. To say that we won would be an understatement. Of the 8 gender/age groups on the day, ranging from u11g to u17m, we won EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. We scored a total of 819.5 points, with second and third places scrapping it out between themselves on 457 and 448 respectively. We scored almost the same number of points as the next two teams combined! How did we manage to pull this…