Warwickshire & Worcestershire County Championships
What a weekend! Whilst Team GB are bringing home the medals from Tokyo, the BRAT athletes have been doing likewise at the Warwickshire and Worcestershire County Championships. Our junior athletes have turned out in force, with the help of a handful of seniors, and all have put in a series of excellent performances over the weekend of Saturday 31st July / Sunday 1st August. With all of the major clubs across the two counties being represented across all disciplines and age groups from under 13s up to seniors (and a handful of vets) these were good quality events to take part in. In total the BRAT medal haul of 11 Golds, 7 silver and 6 bronze shows that we are one of the premier clubs in the Midlands, if not in the country and our under 13s and 15s accounted for an incredible 8 of these golds! BRAT medal winners…
Birmingham Uni Open 14th July
14th July saw the final Birmingham Track & Field Open of the season, and a number of the Junior BRATS took advantage of the events aimed at the younger age group. 15 of the 26 runners in the 150m were BRATS, with all 15 of them running a PB!! 6 of the 10 runners in the 600m were also BRATS with U13 Noor Bailey and U11 Millie Gordon-Maclean achieving PBs. BRATs also took over the Long Jump pit, with 8 of the 12 athletes taking part – U15 Jacob Gosnall, U15 May Smith and Noor Bailey all jumped PBs 3 BRATs entered throwing events, with both U13 Evie Rendell and U13 Dylan Gargett achieving PBs in the javelin. A fantastic evening for all. Toby Gosnall was on hand to capture the action again, and the photos can be viewed on the BRAT Flickr page – Birmingham Uni Open 14th July…
English Schools’ Athletic Association 11th July 2021
U15 Jamie Callaghan was selected by English Schools’ Athletic Association to represent the West Midlands in the hammer at the National Finals in Manchester on 11th July. This year they selected the Top 16 from Power of 10 in individual events to represent their counties at the final. Jamie finished 9th overall, just missing out on the second round for a further three throws. It was a fantastic experience which has spurred him on to train even harder for next year. Well done Jamie
BRAT Junior Success Continues At Cheltenham
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…
Alba qualifies for Inter-Regional Triathlon Championships
Junior Triathlete Alba smith-pena to represent west-midlands in national inter-regional triathlon championships Alba Smith-Pena, one of our juniors, has shown her multi-sport prowess by being selected by Triathlon England West Midlands to represent the West Midlands Region at the National Inter-Regional Championships (IRC) on 11th September at Mallory Park. The IRC are one yearly event as part of the British Triathlon Under 20’s Festival. They are an opportunity for some of the best girls and boys across both TriStar2 and 3 age groups in each of the 10 English Regions, Scotland, Wales and Jersey to race against each other. Alba qualified at Sandwell Triathlon earlier in the season, which was the qualifying event for this year. She is one of the 4 girls in TriStar3 who will represent the West Midlands at the IRC – well done Alba!!! As a club, one of our major goals this year is to establish a…
1st Place for BRAT @ Stourport (Heart of England League) – 3rd July 2021
The Heart of England League is known as the “friendly league” and was formed in 1978 to give Midland based clubs local competition to a broader range of athletes including, under 11s. There are 28 clubs, and normally they compete in 3 matches across 4 divisions with promotion and relegation at the end of the season. However, this year (due to the pandemic), it’s been regionalised to reduce travel, and there is no promotion or relegation. This did not affect the youngsters though who gave it their all and finished first out of 7 clubs!! This was the 1st Heart of England BRAT were able to compete in since July 2019, and was eagerly anticipated. The last year has been a difficult year for many athletics clubs and BRAT is no exception to this. The overwhelming majority of our U11s and U13s had never taken part in a club competition…
West Midlands Schools Trials
30 Junior BRATs took part in the West Midlands Schools Trials in Sutton on 19th June, hoping to qualify for the English Schools on 11th July in Manchester. Between them they competed in 10 different events and collectively there were a staggering 35 PBs and 4 SBs which is a phenomenal achievement. The most popular event seemed to be the 100m where 15 different athletes ran, and this accounted for 11 PBs and 2 SBs! U15 Jamie Keene’s 800m time of 2.08.05 has ranked him 29th in the country, and Lily Smith’s Long Jump of 5.05m has ranked her 17th. Well done to all athletes who took part, and the results can be seen below.
Cheltenham Young Athletes Open 6th June 2021
6th June seems to have been a busy one in the BRAT calendar – the Hilly 100, the Leeds Triathlon and the Cheltenham Young Athletes Open. The Cheltenham event is for athletes aged at least 9 and has events for U10’s, U12’s and U14’s, including 60m, 100m, 600m, 800m, Long Jump, Howler, Shot, Long Jump and High Jump. The young BRATs were out in force, and many achieved podium finishes. Highlights include the U10 Long Jump which had BRAT finishing 1st with Erin Colclough who jumped 3.35, 2nd with sister Josephine with a jump of 3.27 and 3rd with Amber Stevens who jumped 3.05 – well done girls, a complete BRAT podium! Josephine also came 1st in the 600m in a time of 02:09, with Amber coming 3rd in a time of 02:10. U12 Josh Taylor was 1st in the 1200m in a time of 04:23. U14 Evie Rendell was 1st in the…
West Mids Schools Long Throws
Two BRATs took part in the West Mids Schools Long Throws which was held at the Birmingham Uni Track on 29th May. The main event will take place on 19th June in Sutton, but because their cage has been condemned BRAT stepped in to host this event. This was the first licensed T&F event the club has hosted since 2013 and our first on thenew track!! U15 Jamie Callaghan took part in both the hammer and discus, and threw a further 7.28m in the hammer for a PB of 31.86m which currently puts him 9th in the country, and was just 1.5m off of his discus PB with a throw of 26.72m. It was Ruby Smith’s first outing as an U15 throwing the new discus weight of 1kg. She threw a PB of 18m which is 2m further than her U13 PB and gives her a UK ranking. Well done to both…
U13’s Alba & Erin
U13’s Erin McDaid and Alba Smith-Pena travelled to Cheltenham on 2nd May for some multi-event action. Alba competed in the High Jump, Long Jump and 800m where she achieved a PB of 2.48. Erin was 1st in the howler, 4th in the 70m hurdles with a time of 12.87, 3rd in long jump with 3.48m, 3rd in the speed bounce and 3rd in the 100m. It’s surprising Alba had any energy left after competing in the Oldbury White Horse Children’s Triathlon the day before. The Tri-Star 3 consisted of a 250m swim, 4km grass cycle and a 2km run. Having not competed for over a year she finished an impressive 10th out of 22. Well done girls
Birchfield Young Athletes Open Meeting
Birchfield Young Athletes Open Meeting 10 BRAT Juniors travelled to Nuneaton on 18th April for the Birchfield Young Athletes Open Meeting. Having had snow the previous weekend, the weather was kind to the youngsters with warm, pleasant conditions, which resulted in a number of PBs and SBs. Five U15 Girls entered the 100m, with Lily Smith securing silver in a SB time of 13.51. Isla O’Conner ran a PB of 13.88, Bonheur Tshibola a PB of 14.36, May Smith a SB of 14.57 and Isabelle Carruthers 14.63. Lily Smith ran a PB time of 28.17 in the 200m to get her 2nd silver of the day, and U15 Katie Collis also ran the same distance with a PB of 30.73 May and Katie were also in action in the 300m with further PBs of 46.93 and 48.47 respectively, and Bonheur did the 75m hurdles with a PB of 16.17. Alba…
BRAT Junior Athletics – End of Season
U15 twins Lily and May Smith travelled to Stretford, Manchester on 26th September, with both doing the 100m and 200m and Lily also competing in the Long Jump. Lily was tantalisingly close to her PB in the long jump again with a jump of 4.80m and May beat her PB in the 200m by 0.13 seconds to run a time of 30.26. U13 Alba Smith-Pena competed in the BCT Junior Aquathon on 26th September where she was just 10 seconds off of 3rd place. This is a fantastic achievement considering swimming has been off the agenda until recently so she has not been able to get any practice in. The anticipated wet forecast did nothing to dampen the spirits of the 12 BRATS who travelled to Nuneaton on 4th October. It was U9 Erin and Josephine Colclough’s first outing – they obviously have their dad’s speedy legs as they finished…