Midland XC League 2019-20
Saturday 8th February saw the final Midland XC League race of the season take place in Leamington Spa. Clubs and University teams from across the Midlands competed over four races between November and February with this year’s league taking us from the rolling hills and icy rain of Burton Dassett to a very hilly and boggy course in Stratford, then onto a challenging trail race in Trentham and through the infamous ditch of Leamington! The BRAT women have been out in force this season, welcoming old faces and new to XC – and what a season it has been! The season opener in November could not have been in worse conditions with heavy icy rain and a muddy hilly course it really was about as tough as XC gets. Anne Kenchington led the team home with a superb start to the season taking on the hills and conditions no problem…
AGM
Would you believe a year has almost passed since the last BRAT AGM….!?! Well, it has and so the Exec would like to give notice for the BRAT 2020 AGM. All members are encouraged to attend to have a say in setting the direction of the club for the following year, and to elect members on to the Exec to ensure the smooth running of the club next year, and beyond. Where: The Blue Coat School, Pavilion When: 10th May 2020 – 6pm Look out for more information coming up, including which posts/roles are up for election, ways that you can get involved, highlights from 2019-20, club targets and priorities for 2020-21, and constitutional amendments.
Midland Indoor T & F Championships
Ten of our T&F athletes entered the Midland Counties Indoor Championships on February 8/9th at the HPC , Birmingham and in a very successful weekend came away with 3 medals, one of each colour, along with multiple personal bests. Spurred on by being in a warm, dry arena away from storm Ciara, which was lashing the country, Lily Smith continued her magnificent progress in the Long Jump winning the U15 title in a new pb of 5.04m, despite this being her first year in the age group. Mali Lloyd Griffiths, just missed out on a medal by dropping down to 4th in the final round but nevertheless still recorded a pb of 4.83m. Our other medal winning performances came in the senior men’s 60m Hurdles, where 3 BRATs lined up in the final. This was a very close race with only 0.5 s separating all 6 finalists, but in a…
Meet the Triathlete – Lauren Turvey
February’s ‘Meet the Triathlete’ catches up with one of BRAT Club’s highest performing triathletes. Having finished in 7th place at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Lausanne 2019, we were delighted to get to know a little more about ultra speedy: Lauren Turvey!
Super Saturday (part 3)
Meanwhile up in Telford the BRAT mens XC team went into the final league fixture looking to secure promotion back to Div.1 at the first attempt. The top of the table was very tight so despite sitting in second place before the race (3 to go up) there was no room for complacency.Under the expert guidance of Martin Ludford (team manager) the team secured 2nd place on the day to anchor themselves in 2nd place in the league. Not to be outdone the B-team also finished second on the day securing 1st place overall in the B-competition.Well done all – Division 1 awaits next winter.
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.
Super Saturday (part 1)
Saturday 8th February saw the BRAT ladies XC team head down to Leamington for the final race of the 2019/20 XC league campaign. It was still all to play for with BRAT sitting in 4th position behind Loughborough students, Birchfield and Birmingham students.The Leamington course didn’t disappoint with the usual mix of hills, mud, open country and the infamous ditch.A fantastic team effort by Eloise, Beccy T, Anne K and Molly saw BRAT overhaul Loughborough and move back into third place overall.This was topped off by Molly winning 3rd place in the individual standings.Thanks should go to all who have competed this season (many pictured above in the unseasonal sunshine yesterday) as this has produced a brilliant team atmosphere on race days.
Midland XC Championships 2020
Saturday 25th January saw runners from across the midlands set up camp at Prestwold Hall in Loughborough for the Midland XC Championships. With the numbers collected, a walk around the course confirmed that the new route for 2020 would be challenging and heavy going … perfect! A number of BRAT juniors ran very well in the earlier races (U13G, U15B, U17B). Lauren Hevey came 97th in U13Girls, Tom Burdett 19th and Morgan Hill 78th in U15 Boys and Rueben Kite 21st in U17 men. Then it was suddenly time for the BRAT women to take to the start line. The course was two laps with lots of mud, a log to jump and a steep hill to contend with. The gun went and as expected it was a quick start on what felt like the only downhill section of the course. A leading pack went off early and soon there…
Meet the triathlete – January 2020 – Nick Haigh
January’s ‘Meet the Triathlete’ catches up with the winner of Best Long Course Male and Most Improved Male at the BRAT Awards last year. Meet the BRAT who just loves to go long, Nick Haigh!
Midland T&F League
These are the dates to keep free for the four senior T&F League Fixtures.As you can see we have a home fixture at the University Track on Sunday 12th July. Help will be required to host this match – more details to follow. Sunday 17th May – AbingdonSunday 7th June – CoventrySunday 12th July – BRATSunday 9th August – Stoke
Heart of England T&F League
More dates to start filling in the blanks in the 2020 diary.There will be three fixtures in the Junior HoE T&F League. Sunday 3rd May – BanburySunday 5th July – CorbySaturday 25th July – Kidderminster and Stourport
Diary Dates
Some general dates for the diary for 2020 21st March – Midland Road Relays Men 12x, Ladies 6x and Juniors 3x University Open Track Meets6th May10th June8th July29th July