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
Meet the Triathlete – December 2019 – James Wright
Meet the Triathlete – Decemeber 2019 edition – James Wright. Top tips and info on James’ Triathlon experiences so far.
It’s social time!!
The two main events in the BRAT Social Calendar are just around the corner: BRAT Awards Evening – 23rd November – Harborne Golf Club BRAT Christmas Ball – Black tie event at The Cube in the city centre, with three course Christmas Dinner and featuring a live band! These events are both excellent opportunities to share in the club’s achievements across the year, and to enjoy a sociable get together. Tickets for the Awards evening are available in the website shop. Tickets for the Ball can be bought direct from Chris Davy. Email chairman@bratclub.co.uk or chrisdavy@hotmail.co.uk – alternatively contact him on Facebook.