BRAT End of Season Open – Sunday 7th Sept
This was the first open that BRAT have hosted in many years. It was great to see athletes attending from far and wide to attend an event in which the majority of events sold out. A host of new officials supplemented the experienced core team of officials. With the exception of Chief Starter, Ray Lloyd, all officials were from within the club. Additionally, a largely new events team worked together behind the scenes to make the event work. Full results can be found on Entry4Sport on this link and on PowerOf10 here. Photos courtesy of Imageineering can be found on these links: We hope to see you at our events in 2026.
HEART OF ENGLAND: SEASON WRAP-UP – WE CAME, WE SAW, WE WON (A LOT)
A couple of months ago, Colin asked if I’d take over the Heart of England team. I looked him in the eye, smiled politely, and thought:“These are some very big shoes to fill… but hey, why not jump straight in and see what happens?” Fast-forward to comp season: fixture clashes everywhere, athletes flying off to senior events, U15s and U17s disappearing to represent West Midlands Schools at the Mason Trophy, others vanishing for exams (how dare they prioritise education?), and the final meeting landing right in the middle of holiday season. Perfect timing! Was I panicking?Absolutely not (okay, maybe a little). But I looked at our talent pool, counted heads, and realised: we’re still in great shape. We filled every event. Everyone held their own. And some stars even stepped up an age group to compete in the age above, special shout-outs to Gabriella Blake and Amerai White, total legends.…
Spotlight: BRAT Juniors
Our BRAT Juniors are having a fantastic season so far with eight athletes recently landing a clutch of national or world podium and top ten finishes. We currently have 250 junior athletes from eight to 18-years-old, with its junior team currently leading division one of the four-division Heart of England League. We are also actively supporting neurodiverse athletes and athletes with disability to reach their potential and welcomes anyone with a passion for track and field, cross country, road running, and triathlon. Recent BRAT junior successes include: At the heart of BRAT’s success is its dedicated coaching team of volunteers, who run training sessions from the University of Birmingham Athletics Track. Now, the club is seeking new coaches who are ideally ex or current athletes, but with passion for the sport being the most important criteria. Christopher Davy, BRAT chair, said: We’re passionate about being a welcoming and inclusive club…
BRAT Round-up (WC 2nd June 2025)
Sandeep didn’t include himself in his weekly roundup, so i’ll include him. Attempting the Bolton 70.3 on Sunday, he managed to take an amazing 1 hour and 10 minutes off his previous best! He is simultaneously vowing never to do another one whilst scoping out future races, so I all think we know which way this is going! Well done Sandeep, a great performance, one to be proud of 👏👏👏 Super BRAT Leonie Goodwin finished in an awesome 5th in age group at the Eastbourne Triathlon. Tough swim with a windy and very hilly bike. Well done you. Super BRAT Jez smashed his way through Blenheim Triathlon. Well done Sir. Now how would you fancy running 56 miles in the blazing sun with 4000 feet of elevation??? Well take a bow Super BRAT Dan Robinson and Super BRAT Naomi Mitchell they did this at the weekend. What a monumental achievement…
BRAT Round-up (WC 26th May 2025)
So its another sunny week and well done to all BRAT’s at the B’ham Uni track event last Wednesday. Some PB’s and much improvement was seen by all. Really pleased to see the training paying off during race season. Please can I request you to fill in the below form so we can shout about all the BRAT’s and your magnificent achievements. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeu1afWfAugDKe908HTPe11nk-J-5sCnHrF3PFL43rFpITBSA/viewform Many of you are completing long rides and runs at the weekends and the nice weather is really helping. Bittell on Thursday evenings is now attracting approx 20 swimmers per week! Please support the session as we always need volunteers to support. This session is now open to members £6 and also non-BRAT members at £8 per session. Link is below https://clubspark.net/BirminghamRunningAthleticsTriathlonClub/Coaching/Summary/e8bb4836-8cc4-49cd-a0fa-33ae9e4bb60f Sunday morning BRAT rides: BRAT Coach Simon Pearson wrote…. After a delayed start, due to a technical fault with the ride leaders alarm clock, six…
Heart of England League – Results are in!
Huge thanks to everyone for your amazing effort! Special mentions: Matty, Alba & Robert – GCSEs + 2 days competing 👏 Amerai & Gabrielle – U15 girls stepping up to U17 with brilliant performances! Club records broken today:Muayyad – 300m (U15 boys)Jaya – High Jump (U13 girls)Austin – Equalled U15 boys High JumpAlisia – Equalled U15 girls 75m HurdlesU15 Girls Relay – smashed the old record by ~3 seconds! 🔥Hope I haven’t missed anyone!Massive shout-out to all the officials who put in a shift 💪And a big thank you to all the parents for bringing the kids and making it such a great day. 📅 Next match: 22nd June in Banbury – please save the date! Overall, an amazing performance from everyone. Wish me luck picking the next team with such a talented squad! 😅🙌 Results are here: https://hofe-league.org.uk/results-division-1/
BRAT Round-up (WC 12th May 2025)
Well, Super BRAT Claire Keene, 1st Place Roadford Lake Tri! Super BRAT’s John McKeon (5:19:34) and Leonie Goodwin (5:31:18) and Super BRAT Abbie Saker comes 7th 4:46:53………Wow you guys excelled at Outlaw Half yesterday….Amazing BRAT performance Super BRAT’s Paul Cannon and Helen Pike raced at 51 Fiver Triathlon. Helen finished 4th in Age group (2:52:41) It wouldn’t be a BRAT week without Ron Cattle competing Veterans Athletic Club 5 mile champs Battersea Park. 34:55 And Super BRAT Mark Ince setting another V50 record this weekend…..He did!!! James c Colclough M45 200m, Simon Pearce M40 PV, Karen Bailey W40 DT, Louise Robinson SW 400H, Alba Smith Pena 2000m S/C and Jenny Scott W35 HJ. What a BRAT team we have. Super BRAT Joseph Tuffin 2nd in the 3000m Loughborough International. Oh and what a day we had at Banbury Triathlon yesterday. BRAT Cleaned up the awards with the announcers stating…….”BRAT seem…
Warwickshire & Worcestershire County XC Champs- Solihull Riding Club Saturday 14th December
Write-up by: Nick Price (Junior XC Team Manager & Endurance Lead Coach) Some excellent performances by the juniors at the County XC Champs at the new testing course at the Solihull Riding Club. It was good for the juniors to experience racing on pasture / farm land rather than parks! The Champs is one of the qualifying races for the Inter Counties XC Champs at Nottingham on 8th March with 8 athletes from Warwickshire and Worcestershire being selected! Overall we achieved 4 podium medals and 3 team medals during the day which was a great team effort! U11G – Nya ran away with the race and looked comfortable winning her 2nd County XC Champs in a row! Isabelle 21, Veronica 25. Team 4th U11B- Another excellent performance by the U11s with a great 2nd team place again!! George 5, Thomas 11, Zachary 13, Jeevan 19, William 20, Walter 21, Sebastian…
BRAT Awards 2024
It was great to see over 200 of you at our sell-out awards night back in November at our new venue of Moseley Rugby Club. A big thanks to everyone involved in making this happen and a huge congratulations to all of the awards winners. With such a massive number of athletes competing at the moment, gaining a nomination is an achievement in itself! Regardless of if you won an award, you are all a part of the big BRAT family and we look forward to what 2025 has in store. The awards winners from 2024 and all previous years can be found here. It’s well worth a look at who has been awarded the various trophies throughout the history of the club, there are some big names on there. Thanks to Toby Gosnall who captured the night on his camera, you can view all the photos here.
Action Heart Tuff ‘Un 2024
The Action Heart ‘Tuff-Un’ returned again this year with another muddy challenge
BRAT again had a strong showing.
Sportshall Is Back!
Sportshall Athletics. If there was ever a form of organized chaos in athletics. This is it. The degree to which it is organized or chaotic varies from match to match and from club to club, but I’d like to think that BRAT veer slightly towards the organized side of things. It’s somewhat surprising, given the number of new faces we see taking part, not knowing quite what to expect. In Matt’s absence, I had the please of giving out the numbers. This gave a me a great opportunity to assess the general feeling of our athletes. I’d say that there were a lot of nerves on show, so congratulations to all of you that felt nervous at the start but conquered those nerves to put in some great performances. Our u15g team won overall and our u15b were pipped to first place by a handful of points. Out of our…
Junior Cross-Country League Is Back!
Write-up by: Andy Knight If the colours are starting to change at Walsall Arboretum, that can only mean one thing: the cross country season is about to begin! The first race in the prestigious West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League is always one of the many highlights of the BRAT year, and this was no different. I’m sure it’s not just me, but with every passing year there is a greater buzz around the BRAT tent, more athletes and parents staying for the entire programme to cheer on teammates and more under 11s than ever! There were countless standout performances, including many by athletes who have never run in a cross country race or even represented BRAT before; the hard work of athletes and coaches is paying off! Well done all! There was great drama in the under 11 girls’ race, with Nya Williams involved in a titanic tussle…