BRAT AGM
The 2022 AGM will be held ONLINE on Sunday 8th May at 18:00. Email secretary@bratclub.co.uk for your invite. Only current paid up members are allowed to vote at the AGM so please renew your club membership now via Clubspark. This year we have a number of seats on the executive up for consideration this year including: Triathlon Representative Women’s Running Representative Social Secretary
BRAT Juniors Dominate at First Heart of England League
This was our first real league fixture since 2019. We are currently in division 3 and our aim is to be promoted at the end of the season. We had one fixture (that we won) last year, but that didn’t count towards promotion due to it being a fixture based on location rather than the actual teams in our league. This time around, we were up against Bromsgrove & Redditch, Tamworth, Bicester, Corby and a few other teams. To say that we won would be an understatement. Of the 8 gender/age groups on the day, ranging from u11g to u17m, we won EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. We scored a total of 819.5 points, with second and third places scrapping it out between themselves on 457 and 448 respectively. We scored almost the same number of points as the next two teams combined! How did we manage to pull this…
BRAT Juniors @ the Junior Great Birmingham Run
The Junior Great Birmingham Run was open to children aged 9-14 and covered the first 1.25km of the adults’ route before looping back to the finish (2.5km in total). In the girls’ race, Darcey Payne finished 14th (3rd in the 9-11 age category) in 12:33 and Oshi Knox 22nd (7th for 9-11s) in 13:02. In the boys’ race, Ollie Knight was 2nd in 9:07, Josh Taylor 3rd in 9:19, Elliot Dawlatly 4th in 9:19 (a very exciting finish with Josh!), Seb Horton 7th in 10:09 and Joe Baker 8th in 10:13. Ollie, Seb and Joe made it a BRAT 1-2-3 in the boys’ 9-11 age category. Well done to all the BRATs who competed!
Birchfield Harriers Young Athletes Open Meeting – 23/04/2022
With the new Alexander Stadium not being quite ready for general use, Birchfield held their annual Young Athletes Open Meeting at the Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton on 23rd April. For many of the young Junior BRATs this was their first taste of competing for medals in a stadium, and across all age groups BRAT won an incredible 28 medals – 12 Gold, 8 Silver and 8 Bronze! The day had promised to be warm, but there was a strong headwind in play which the athletes did well to battle. The U11’s took part in a Quadrathon which consisted of a 75m, 600m, long jump and howler throw, while the older members took part in individual events. 6 of the 13 competitors for the U11 M Quadrathon and 5 of the 11 competitors for the U11 F Quadrathon were BRATs which is an amazing presence and they were able to give…
Cotswold Hilly 100 is almost here
Missing those miles? we’re still looking for adventurous folk to run up some hills. You can book on through ClubSpark
English Schools XC Champs & Midlands (not quite) 5k Champs!
English Schools XC Champs A small number of BRAT’s achieved the fantastic honour of representing the West Midlands School team and Worcestershire schools at the ESAA English Schools Cross Country Championship’s in Hop Farm, Kent. The weather was more like that of the track season and not cross country, and the course was extremely flat and fast with hardly any mud! The first race of the day to include BRAT athletes was the Junior boys. Jack Price was our 1st athlete home in 191st place, this is a fantastic achievement considering it’s only Jack’s second ever cross country! Niklas Van Mourik was next in 271st place after getting spiked early on in the race. In the Inter boys race we had 3 athletes competing. Will Walker was first home in 135th after being dead last at the start of the race, he was followed home by Morgan Hill in 221st…
BRAT Open 20th March 2022
BRAT held their first internal open meet of the year on Sunday 20th March, for which a staggering 132 athletes took part! For some this was their first taste of competition, and others a chance to shake off the cobwebs before the season gets into full swing. A full programme of events was catered for, covering sprints, distance, throws, jumps and hurdles; a mammoth organisational effort behind the scenes to ensure that the day ran smoothly. Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped set up, officiate, put away, complete registrations and input results during the course of the day. The sun was shining and the day kicked off at 09:30 with the shot, long jump and 300m / 300mH. U11’s were involved in their own Quadrathon which consisted of 75m, 600m, howler and long jump, whilst U13+ took part in up to three individual events. The day drew to…
Warwickshire Road Race League
Below, you will see a list of the races which will make up this year’s Warwickshire Road Race League (WRRL). The programme for 2022 is made up of 10 races :- 18th April Massey ‘s Tractor 10k at the NAC at Stoneleigh Massey Ferguson RC 19th May Ryton 5m at Ryton Pools near Bubbenhall Spa Striders 8th June Sphinx 5m Sphinx AC 12th June Two Castles 10k Leamington C&AC 19th June Arden 9m Knowle&Dorridge RC 10th July Northbrook 10k Northbrook AC 20th August Stratford Summer 6 Stratford Upon Avon AC 11th September Kenilworth Half Marathon Kenilworth Runners 18th September Balsall Common 10k Balsall Common RC 9th October (tbc) Rugby 10m Rugby&Northampton AC You can get more details on the Club web sites or the Two castles web site. Massey’s Tractor 10k To enter use this linkhttps://www.eventrac.co.uk/e/the-massey-ferguson-rc-tractor-10k-4144 Spa Striders 5m Entries are open now https://www.eventrac.co.uk/e/ryton-5-7977 Thursday 19th May 2020 at 7:30pm…
BRAT XC Juniors – Inter Counties Cross Country Championships – Loughborough Saturday 12 March
The race is the UK cross country championships and incorporates the UK Cross Challenge Final. The senior and U20 races are used every two years as the World Cross Country Trial race to select the Great Britain teams so its the top domestic race in the calendar. Athletes have to be selected by their counties to compete with 8 running in each of the junior age groups and 9 in the seniors. To even make it to this event, representing the county, is a huge achievement. Well done to the athletes who competed. Some of the races had over 300 competitors! For most it was their first time in a National Championship race so it was a excellent learning experience for their development. U13B Seb Stendall 148th, U13G Alba Smith Pena 242nd, U15B Dylan Teasdale 229th, U17M Alex Dickson 133rd, Alice Stewart 128th. Sen Men Jonny Cullen 263rd & Matt…
Sign up for the Midlands 12/6 Stage Road Relays – 26 Mar 2022!!!
Spring is on its way and the Spring Midlands Road Relays are back for the first time since 2019! No more sharp spikes to stick in you and no more mud! If the club is your priority, then so is this. Let’s build on our XC performances and get our heart rates and speed up for this great event, that is the Road Relays. We want to get as many teams out on the day as possible. All running speeds welcome, we just put you in the appropriate team. You will get lots of support from your clubmates around the course which is what makes the relay format great. Men: 12 legs comprising 8 x 3.16 miles, and 4 x 5.38 miles.Women: 6 legs comprising 4 x 3.16 miles, and 2 x 5.38 miles. Please contact the following to enter:Men’s team manager: Dan Robinson – Fill in form by Saturday…
Ladies XC League Season
Midland XC League 2021-22 The women have bounced back from the Covid-19 XC drought with a brilliant set of performances across the four Midland XC League races this season. It has been great to see the team back in action on the hills (of which there were many) and mud (very much saved till the end). We’ve welcomed a couple of new members, who seemed to have enjoyed themselves enough to sign up for more! The women raced at some exciting venues this year with the first race at Betley Court Farm, followed by the tough Stratford course and iconic hills of Burton Dassett. The season finished at the trusty Leamington, where they were finally joined by the BRAT men which resulted in some much needed support on the course. Despite the infamous ditch being deemed unsafe, an alternative ditch was soon sought and the detour provided some serious mud…
Ladies National XC
National XC Championships 2022 The National XC Championships is probably the most iconic cross country race going, especially when it is held at the famous Parliament Hill, London. With the cancelled race in 2021, there was a genuine excitement amongst club runners up and down the country. BRAT had just about managed to scrape a team, which sadly got thwarted by Covid-19 the week before. The women were sadly missing Eloise Lee, who is no stranger to the joys of racing at Parliament Hill, so they decided they had to make the most of it for her and just enjoy the muddy course. Arriving at the National is genuinely like no other race, tents littering the hillside. With this year’s mud, there was an air of ‘Glastonbury’ about the place to add to the excitement. After watching several junior races, and concluding that it was probably going to be the…