Senior League
The return of competitive league athletics… Not since August 2019 have athletes from all over theMidlands region had a competitive league match to look forward to. Finally on22nd May teams from Cannock, Abingdon, Stoke, Telford, Coventry and of courseBRAT, met at the University of Warwick track for the first senior league matchof the 2022 season. Two years with no competition, then two matches in thespace of a fortnight. The second match taking place at Abingdon on Sunday 5June – I therefore thought it would be easier to do a round up of both matchesin a single post. The first thing to say is how wonderful and gratifying itis to see that our junior academy is working. The majority of our ‘new look’senior team is made up from athletes who have all come through our academy – inthe first meeting alone we had eight under 17 women and three under 17…
New Indoor Club Record for Adam Peacock
2022 got off to a positive start for Adam Peacock at the British Milers Club indoor Grand Prix at Sheffield on Sunday 9th January. Adam broke the long-standing club indoor record for 1500m, running 3:50.78, finishing in 5th place. The record, previously held by Matthew Clarkson, set in 1989 at RAF Cosford, had stood for over 32 years! Adam Peacock
Updated Athletics Club Rankings
A Happy New Year to all our members. 2021 has seen some remarkable personal improvements in athletics and the final list of 2021 performances for the club is now available to view, together with updated all-time club records and age-group best performance lists. In 2021, there were 3 new overall club records broken and 32 club age-best performances. There were also an amazing number of personal best performances following the club’s return from the 2nd lockdown from COVID-19 in March 2021. Access to the rankings lists is HERE. They can also be found in the ‘Club Info’ tab on the home page. If we have missed any performances from the year or from the other ranking lists, please let us know at rankings@bratclub.co.uk We have also been trying to discover performances from the past, including from our previous ancestor clubs. If you know of anyone or have any old results…
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…
Outstanding Club Performances at Telford 10km
The Telford 10km has the reputation of fast times and it did not disappoint on Sunday 12th December 2021. There were 14 club members who raced and there were some remarkable performances, lead by Morgan Hill, setting a new U17 club age-best time of 37:00 Becki Timmings also ran 35:44, to rank her equal 3rd fastest Ladies club member ever! Club Results: Adam Peacock (SM) 30:56 – Equal 7th Fastest all-time club Man Paddy Townsend (SM) 31:38 Karl Welborn (M40) 31:56 – 3rd fastest all-time club M40 Dan Robinson (M40) 32:06 – 4th fastest all-time club M40 Will McKemey (SM) 32:31 – PB Adam Hill (M35) 33:06 Ben Carrington (M35) 34:23 Conor Farrell (M35) 35:10 – PB Thanos Tsolakis (M45) 35:47 Becki Timmings (SW) 35:44 – Equal 3rd fastest all-time Lady Rachel Gifford (SW) 36:15 – 8th fastest all-time Lady Paul Coughlan (M50) 36:37 – 4th fastest all-time club M50 Morgan Hill (U17) 37:00 – U17 Club age-best performance Damian Cartland (M45) 37:25 – PB Paul Jolliffe…
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…
Men’s XC team shine at Northampton
By: Martin Ludford (XC Team Manager – Men) What an amazing result the Birmingham XC League at Northampton on Saturday 4th December. Following our very encouraging start to the season in race 1 last month, BRAT recorded their best ever result, taking 2nd place in race 2, behind only Birmingham University, and beating all other local rivals in the process. Inspired running by our 24 BRATs meant we had our six A team scorers (Adam Peacock, Henry Brocklehurst, Chris Pickering, Karl Welborn, Dan Robinson, John Stolberg) all home inside the top 40, and our score of 130 put us well clear of Tipton in 3rd place 1 University of Birmingham 3 4 6 8 12 15 48 2 BRAT Club 5 13 19 20 35 38 130 3 Tipton Harriers 16 23 26 31 53 54 203 4 Loughborough Students 7 18 45 49 58 60…
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…
NATIONAL ROAD RELAY 6 STAGE – MEN’S REPORT
Author: Richard Gray I have also shown teams B-H results from The Midland 6 Stage which were not in the previous report. The perfect non-storm greeted us at Sutton. Around 15 degrees; hidden sun; wind at 2mph and a gale force 3mph gust. PBs beckoned! We fielded two teams who had qualified in great style; only the second time having two teams in what is the highest quality team race of the year. There was a great mood, only marred by late changes which had left the B team short of a leg. Manager should have sorted this; so this was on B teams minds. Off we went, the A team fronted by Dan Robinson. Always reliable, but with a theoretically weakened team due to inevitable marathon damage, we needed quicker times to match The Midland performance. Indeed, Dan was 6 seconds quicker. We were on the right path. Tactically…
MIDLAND ROAD RELAY 6 STAGE MENS REPORT – 2021
Here is a short report on our superb performance. It is short without the banter as I do not know some of the athletes well enough, and performances are limited. There are so many teams that I have only reported in any detail for A,B; so apologies for this and any errors. It was wonderful to gather again at Sutton after being locked away for so long. A lovely day greeted us, perhaps a bit warm, but the same for everyone. With all the juniors, the women’s teams, and 8 men’s teams, it was quite a gathering. Just needed a barbie to set the day up. On the other hand, perhaps too much temptation for late leg athletes. This is our biggest turnout for any relay, easily surpassing all our rivals. There were quite a few last minute changes, necessitating swapping same legs between teams for safety of avoiding a…
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…
National Road Relays Preview
We will be at Sutton Park again on Saturday for The National Road Relays. This is a prestigious and high-quality event. Same courses, 5.88k for the men, 4.33k for the women and 3.88k for the juniors! It would be great to see support as present at The Midlands 6 Stage a couple of weeks back. It really does make a difference. The schedule is as follows (we have teams in all!): 11:00 – U13 boys 11:05 – U13 girls 12:00 – U15 boys 12:05 – U15 girls 12:50 – U17 men 12:55 – U17 women 14:00 – Men 14:10 – Women It’s “The National”, so more emphasis on front loading with a good sprint at the end. It’s only the second time we have ever qualified two teams in the men’s race. A great achievement, so let’s enjoy this. Saturday is looking dry and as warm as you would want…