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…
Ladies Cross Country
The women are so happy to have XC back and have been off to a great start in the first two league races. The team finished 4th at the first race near Crewe and 6th at the second race in Stratford, putting them 5th overall. Thanks to all the ladies who have taken part so far. We are always looking for more recruits so please get in touch if you’d like to join the team email: bratladiesxc@gmail.com The next race is the county champs on 8th Jan and we could really do with some seniors joining the Warwickshire team. We currently have a Warwickshire masters team plus an U20 and a strong senior Worcestershire team. Entries close this week!
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…
Tuff Un 2021
The Action Heart ‘Tuff-Un’ returned after a year or two’s hiatus. The race is off-road and takes in 6 miles of mud, sweat and tiers within in the confines of Baggeridge Country Park. The course has a bit of everything with single tracks, hills, a little mud and a shallow stream crossing. As is traditional BRAT turned up in force and took the award for the most participants from one club, an award we have taken since it’s inception. November provided us perfect weather for the event, with bright sunshine and just cold enough to make the ‘water feature’ a bit of a challenge. In spite of the lack of rain recently the clay pit was as muddy as ever with a few people losing footwear. Here are the standout performances for BRAT:Dan Shepherd won overallAmy Brammar came in 2nd femaleHelen Pike came in 3rd female.Adele Raiment was the fastest…
Cannon Hill Parkrun at 500
Cannon Hill Parkrun reaches 500 events.
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…
Farewell Ruth
We’re sad to say that after 6 years of coaching the BRAT throwers, Ruth Briggs is moving on. She is relocating to pastures new in Somerset, and we wish her all the best in her new venture. BRAT are extremely grateful to Ruth for everything she has contributed to the club – not only has she coached discus, shot and hammer, she has also officiated as a Level 2 Field Official at numerous events and been instrumental in organising the AAA Awards for the athletes. Ruth started coaching BRATs in 2015 on Friday nights at the High Performance Centre. Her son Jonathan was being coached by Paul Chapman and he had also been training Ruth in throwing techniques for as long as Jonathan had been with him. It was his firm belief that parents could and should be enabled to help athletes in competition contexts if no coach could be…
BRAT JUNIORS’ AMAZING XC PERFORMANCE
What a day out! A few people have contributed to this write-up, but I’d just like to say a huge WELL DONE to everyone that got involved in our first cross-country since 2019. I’m fully aware of how daunting a task it must have been, I did start my athletics journey as a cross-country runner, many (MANY!) years ago after all. No matter how you felt you performed, I, along with the various team managers and coaches thought you did fantastic. Have no doubt, your contribution to the team is absolutely invaluable. As Dan mentions below, every BRAT runner that overtakes someone, knocks a rival team one place down the results! Bookmark the next date, a home fixture for us at Warley Woods on the 14th of November! If you’re not already involved and want to be, e-mail me here. U11 Girls 8 girls toed the line for the first…
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…