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…
England U15 / U17 Championships
U15 Lily Smith travelled to Sportcity in Manchester on Sunday 8th August for the England U15 / U17 Championships to take part in the Long Jump. To qualify for the competition an athlete has to have achieved a certain standard, and Lily was the only BRAT to have made the grade. Lily went on to finish 6th with a jump of 5.10m, and there was only 40cm separating the top 6 jumpers! Lily was thrilled with the result and it was a fantastic experience. Huge congratulations.
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…