Junior XC – County Champs
Now, I may not win many prizes, but the award for the most waffle filled write-up goes to…. I am writing this short report from my perspective as the BRAT junior team manager/coordinator/head coach….or whatever my role is! For me personally, it was the first time in attending a cross-country county championships in….well…decades! Back when I was a junior, up in Lancashire, I remember doing the county champs and it felt like such a step up in quality as compared to the rest of the league races. This felt the same in the race last Saturday. Smaller fields across all age groups battled a challenging course; traversing narrow sections on energy sapped legs from earlier hills. Add to that the sub-zero temperatures and icy patches and you have a recipe for some tired junior legs! I interviewed one of the junior athletes (also known as a chat with my son,…
Warley Woods – Junior XC
The third fixture of the league was held at Warley Woods on a hilly course and again the club produced some great performances. Although we had 57 athletes finishing, we had a number of athletes unable to compete due to illness which affected a number of teams. The U11s bucked that trend with a superb 3rd place in the girls and 5th in the boys. The other teams in the top 10 were U17M 3rd, U13B 4th, U15G 7th and U13G 9th. Overall, we finished 6th on the day but with two teams very close in front. We still retain our 4th position overall after the third fixture so plenty of time to consolidate this over the final two fixtures. Thank you to the team managers, Jort for bringing the tent and the parents and not forgetting the athletes for doing all the hard work! Looking forward to seeing you…
Another strong XC performance for the BRAT Junior Team!
Another excellent turn out with 59 BRATs competing on the fast grassland course at Newbold Revel. After our excellent 4th place at the first match at Walsall, we again finished 4th on the day which consolidated our overall position in the league. The standout performance on the day was Nya 5th in U11 Girls, and she has two more years in this age group, a massive improvement by Josh finishing 6th in U13 Boys and Jack 9th U15 Boys and Amira 10th in U13 Girls. But remember this is a team effort and all the athletes contribute to the overall score! If you finish 50th you score 151 points, so it all adds to the performance of the club. it was great seeing so many athletes out enjoying themselves and especially the support of the parents and team managers! The next match in the league is at Warley Woods on…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
BRAT Juniors @ the Junior Great Birmingham Run
The Junior Great Birmingham Run was open to children aged 9-14 and covered the first 1.25km of the adults’ route before looping back to the finish (2.5km in total). In the girls’ race, Darcey Payne finished 14th (3rd in the 9-11 age category) in 12:33 and Oshi Knox 22nd (7th for 9-11s) in 13:02. In the boys’ race, Ollie Knight was 2nd in 9:07, Josh Taylor 3rd in 9:19, Elliot Dawlatly 4th in 9:19 (a very exciting finish with Josh!), Seb Horton 7th in 10:09 and Joe Baker 8th in 10:13. Ollie, Seb and Joe made it a BRAT 1-2-3 in the boys’ 9-11 age category. Well done to all the BRATs who competed!