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…
BRAT Juniors – September action!
September has been a busy month for Open Events, and a number of Junior BRATS have made the most of the opportunity for some end of season action. U15 Morgan Hill was the only BRAT at Charnwood on 9th where he ran a PB in the 3000m with a time of 10.32mins – 15secs faster than his time from June 2019. Leamington on 12th saw Innes Villalobos-Finigan venture out as her 1st year as an U17 to try the 400m where she achieved a time of 70.3 secs. Morgan Hill secured a SB in the 1500m with 4.55mins, V40 James Colclough achieved his 2nd fastest 400m this season with 53.8 secs and V35 Abayomi Adedimeji completed the 1500m in 4.40mins. Unfortunately the following weekend saw the event planned for Rugby on 19th cancelled due to a rise in COVID cases, but a number of athletes were able to attend the…
BRAT Juniors return to action!
With COVID restrictions being lifted and pilot meetings having been completed, the last couple of weekends have seen a number of BRAT Juniors in action. U15’s Lily Smith, May Smith and Mali Lloyd-Griffiths all had an early start in Nuneaton on Sunday 30th August with the 100m. Lily and Mali were also in the Long Jump, with Mali improving on her PB by 3cm to jump over 5 metres – one of only 26 U15 girls to jump over 5m this year, with Lily also being one of them! May tried a new distance of 300m and achieved a PB of 48.48, Morgan Hill secured a PB in the 800m with a time of 2 mins 29 and Jamie Callaghan throwing as an U15 for the 1st time, a PB in the discus with a distance of 26.03m. U11 Erin McDaid travelled to Charnwood and achieved a PB in both the…
Super Saturday (part 2)
Meanwhile over at the High Performance Centre several junior BRATs were competing in the Midland Indoor Championships.Lilly Smith (pictured above) continued her improvement taking Gold in the U15 Long Jump with a jump of 5.04m. This is currently 12th best in the UK this year and only the 8th BRAT lady (any age group) to ever exceed the 5m mark.Mali Lloyd-Griffiths narrowly missed the podium by just 4cm (about the width of a credit card) finishing 4th in 4.84m. An Excellent start to the 2020 season.
Silver For Lily at Midlands
A silver medal was the reward for BRAT under 13 athlete Lily Smith in the Quadrathlon event at this weekend’s Midland Championships. After running 13.50 in the 100m and throwing a pb of 6.72m in the shot, Lily put herself into medal contention. Another pb in the 600m of 1.50.28 and a leap of 4.88m in the long jump put her just 200 points behind the eventual winner – a great achievement all round, especially considering the size of the task given the height advantage the girls in first and third place had over Lily – See pic ! Her score of 3586pts was a club record, surpassing the previous held by Josie Williams by nearly 500 points. This was Lily’s 11th club record this year, a magnificent achievement. Also breaking the club record was U13 Boy Jamie Callaghan in the boys quadrathlon with a score of 1342points, recording 3.36m…