BRAT JUNIORS – ANOTHER STRONG XC PERFORMANCE
Well done team! Here are the totals after 4 of the 5 league cross-countries: Lots more stats and results here. As you can see, we are in 5th place after 4 events. This is something that we can be proud of, especially given the calibre and history of some of the teams below us. Everyone involved plays a part, so thank you to the coaches, team managers, parents….and of course the athletes themselves. A big shout out to Darcey who managed to lose a shoe at some point on the course and keep going until the end! It may be a tough task for us to catch 4th place overall in our next league XC, but let’s give it everything we’ve got! Bookmark the date in your diary, let’s aim for a record turnout to finish the season! Keep strong, keep training! Individual results as follows can be found below. Note that these…
Junior Awards Ceremony
Due to the ongoing Covid restrictions it was not possible to hold the traditional indoor Awards Evening for all BRAT members. Not to be disheartened, the Junior’s held an outdoor event at the track following their Sunday morning training session. The weather held, the Christmas tunes played, mince pies were eaten and the applause kept coming. A special thanks goes out to Julie Smith for organising the event, Martin Ludford for getting the trophies engraved and set-up and Gordon Ainsley for collating all the results. A collection was made for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where £100 was raised. Before the awards were announced, Gordon highlighted all the members who had broken Club records – 28 had been broken in total, some multiple times! Congratulations to the following:- Club Record Breakers: James Marshall (Masters) 8 x all at 800m Lucie Tait-Harris (Masters) 7 from 800m to 5000m Karl Welborn (Masters) 5 from…
Another amazing BRAT junior XC performance!
Before I go into how well you all did (yes, you did well!), I want to mention about how you, and we as a team can be even better. This isn’t to take anything away from anyone’s performance, but rather, it’s a sign of how far the team has come. We are challenging the best teams, there’s no reason why we can’t break into the top 3 at the next event. You have 6 weeks until the next league race in Walsall (16th January). 6 weeks is a decent amount of time to put in some consistent training, and maybe add in a few additional races too. With regards to training, you know the drill. Keep consistent and work hard. It will pay off. Talk to the coaches if you want a specific training strategy. All of the coaches bring a wealth of experience and have all run cross-country, we…
Another Inspired BRAT Junior XC Performance!
Warley Woods, race 2. Now, juniors, I know you may feel you worked hard, ran your socks off (or your shoes off, in 2 cases I know of…!), pushed to the line and given it absolutely all you had. BUT…what I have to say is “think of the parents!”. Do you know how hard it is to support at Warley Woods? I saw mums and dads going up and down those hills over and over again, toddlers and pets in tow, screaming at the top of their lungs! So, parents, you have my full respect when I say WELL DONE! As for the juniors, yes, I suppose you didn’t do too bad too. In addition to some top 3 and top 10 placings, we had a much strengthened U15 girls team, with 3 of the runners making their season debut. A special mention to Tilly & Katie who kept going…
BRAT JUNIORS’ AMAZING XC PERFORMANCE
What a day out! A few people have contributed to this write-up, but I’d just like to say a huge WELL DONE to everyone that got involved in our first cross-country since 2019. I’m fully aware of how daunting a task it must have been, I did start my athletics journey as a cross-country runner, many (MANY!) years ago after all. No matter how you felt you performed, I, along with the various team managers and coaches thought you did fantastic. Have no doubt, your contribution to the team is absolutely invaluable. As Dan mentions below, every BRAT runner that overtakes someone, knocks a rival team one place down the results! Bookmark the next date, a home fixture for us at Warley Woods on the 14th of November! If you’re not already involved and want to be, e-mail me here. U11 Girls 8 girls toed the line for the first…
Wrexham Final Fling & Much Wenlock Olympic Games
The weekend of 25th & 26th September was the Junior BRATs last chance to improve on their PBs and alter their standings in the Club Championships before the season came to a close. U15 Jamie Callaghan travelled to Wrexham to take part in a throwathon which consisted of hammer, discus, shot and javelin. Jamie finished 3rd overall with 1833 points, just 42 points behind 1st place. He won 2 x silvers and 2 x bronzes and threw 3 PBs, with his best being a hammer throw of 42.29m – just 19cm off of the club record, and a throw which moved him up to 9th in the UK rankings! The other BRATs took part in the Much Wenlock Olympic Games on Sunday 26th. U11’s William Tinsley, Tiernan Clark, Jake Holford, Oshi Knox, Millie Gordon-Maclean and Josephine Colclough all ran PBs in the 75m with Oshi securing a bronze medal with…
BRAT Juniors @ The Midland Road Relays
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…
Brewer Games Cheltenham 18th September 2021
With the end of the season fast approaching this was the penultimate weekend for the BRAT Juniors to improve on their PBs and move up in the Club Championships. It was an early start for some with the first events kicking off at 10:00, and a long day for those competing in the Quadrathons. U15 Ruby Smith improved on her discus PB with a throw of 20.32 to move her up to a Standard 4 and U15 Isabelle Carruthers threw a PB in the shot with 7.70. U15 Isla O’Connor improved on her long jump by a whopping 65cm to jump a PB of 4.46m and U15 Jake Gosnall jumped a further 5cm in the High Jump to clear 1.60m. Jake also ran a PB in the 300m in a time of 39.7 and U15 May Smith ran a PB in the 800m in a time of 2.38.8. U15 Jamie…
Leamington Open 11th September
A number of the BRAT Juniors headed to Leamington on 11th September to take part in their Open. The U11’s and U13’s were involved in the Quadrathon, but unfortunately as it was the Leamington Club Championships they could only compete as guests and were not eligible for any medals. Had they been able to, U11 Tiernan Clark would have received Gold with his 180 points which was 29 points clear of 2nd place!! Sebastien Emery came 4th and Will Tinsley 9th. It was U13 Matthew Morris’ 1st ever open where he took part in the 100m, 800m, javelin and long jump and jumped an impressive 4.10m. He too came 1st along with Amira Emery in the U13 girls quadrathon where she ran a PB in the 800m of 2.51.8 Also taking part in the U13 Quadrathon was Samuel Vaughan who pipped Amira to the line in the 800m in a…
Junior Triathlon
The 2021 Inter Regional Championships took place at Mallory Park, Leicestershire, on 11th September. Alba Smith-Pena competed in Tristar 3 representing the West Midlands: (Triathlon) 300m swim / 2.6km bike / 1.2km Run and classified for the B final. The best junior triathletes in the U.K. and Jersey competed on the day, and Alba finished 48th overall. It was a very good experience for Alba and she cannot wait to give it a go again next year, when she will still be in the Tristar 3 category. The Black Country / Wombourne Junior Triathlon took place on Saturday 18th September which is part of the Triathlon England Junior West Midlands Series. BRAT had two competitors – Jemima Jackson and Alba Smith-Pena. Jemima came 3rd in her category which is a fantastic achievement. Unfortunately Alba did not see the official telling her that she was due the last two laps swimming…
Telford Games, Saturday 11th September
With just 3 weekends left until the end of the season, 14 BRATs travelled to Telford for their Medal Open on 11th September. The weather held out, and the BRATs came away with an impressive 12 medals from the field events and 5 from the track. Newcomer U17 Kori Rose ran a PB in the 100m of 12.12 to take Bronze, and U13 Anthony Golding also won bronze in his age group for that event and a bronze and PB in the 200m. U15 Isabelle Carruthers and U13 T’yana Josephs both made it through the heats to the 100m finals. U13 Josh Taylor ran a PB in the 800m of 2.52.8 to secure bronze, and the final bronze from the track was for U13 T’yana Josephs in the 200m with a PB time of 30.57. U11 sisters Erin and Josephine Colclough both made it through the heats to the final…
Olly Knight stars in the U11 Warwickshire Champs
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…