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…
Junior biathlon
2 Junior BRATS took part in the British Modern Biathlon Championships in Bath on Saturday 26th February. The event consisted of swimming and a 1600m run. Jemima Jackson finished 7th overall, and took an astounding 15 seconds off of her 1600m time to run a PB of 5.59. U14 Alba Smith-Pena finished 11th over all in her age group with a 1.11 100m swim and a 6.11 1600m run. Congratulations to both athletes.
Highest ever finish in Birmingham XC League for BRAT men’s team!
Highest ever finish in Birmingham XC League for BRAT men’s team. The final league race of the season took place in Leamington with conditions underfoot at Newbold Comyn soft and wet in the extreme. Despite missing a number of our leading runners, we scored 244 to finish 6th on the day and end the season in a hugely impressive 5th place out of the 16 teams. This is our best ever season’s finish in Div 1 (previous best finishing positions were 6th in 1991/92 season as Rowheath Harriers, and 6th again in 2012/13 as BRAT). So although we had hoped to go a bit better it was still a great end to the campaign; to finish in the top five in this company is no mean feat. The A team scorers on the day were Henry Brocklehurst 12, Chris Pickering 13, Will McKemey 38, Dan Shepherd 43, Ben Carrington 65,…
A final fling for the BRAT Junior XC athletes
This is just a brief summary e-mail to round off all the outstanding junior performances in this season’s cross-country league. As a club, it looks like we have taken a massive step in the right direction, with an overall finishing position, after all fixtures, of 5th place. This is a huge improvement on where we were when the league last ran 2 years ago where we finished 12th. The season before that we were 14th. Looking at the overall results, there is a clear distinction between the larger, well-established clubs and some of the smaller local clubs. I think we have successfully bridged that gap this season and have infiltrated the higher ranks, beating teams such as Birchfield and Tipton. As has been said throughout the series, everyone that took part in the cross-country events this winter has played a role. Every point counts, every position counts. Congratulations to you…
Junior Indoor Opens – weekend of 19th & 20th Feb 2022
The weekend of 19th and 20th February saw a number of Junior BRATS take part in indoor opens. U13 Erin McDaid travelled to Lea Valley for the 60m hurdles where she ran a PB time of 10.84, ranking her 12th in the UK, while other BRATS took part in the MCAA City of Birmingham Games at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham. It was an amazing experience for all, and for some it was their first taste of an indoor arena. There were many PBs across the age groups and disciplines, with a few of the highlights below. 1st year U15 Evie Rendell secured 3 PBs, with a time of 10.73 in the 60m hurdles, a high jump of 1.40m and a shot put of 7m. 1st year U17 Lily Smith ran a PB in the 60m in a time of 8.37 and sister May a PB of 8.78. Further U17…
University of Birmingham Aquathlon
The Birmingham University Aquathlon is back for 2022, and is being held at the beautiful Birmingham University campus on Saturday 5th March.The event is open to anyone aged 18+ and promises to be a great event. If you want to enter, the organisers are giving away a free T-shirt to the first 100 entries, so get your entry in quick!There will be lots going on surrounding the event, including a bake sale, raffle and prizes for top 3 competitors.
Chris Pickering is 2nd in the Army XC Champs.
Congratulations to Capt. Chris Pickering who finished in a brilliant 2nd place in the British Army National Cross Country Championships (26th Jan 2022), held at Camberley.
Record number of BRAT Juniors qualify for the National English Schools Cross Country Championships
Record number of BRAT Juniors qualify for the National English Schools Cross Country Championships. The outstanding recent performances of our juniors in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League (wmyaccl) have been backed up by another strong showing in the West Midlands Schools XC Championships held in Warley Woods on 22 Jan 2022. On a beautiful sunny day, we had 15 BRAT juniors competing on a hilly course in 4 age groups that differ from those in the league (minor Y7, junior Y8/9, inter Y10/11, and senior Y12/13). In the junior/inter/senior categories a top 6 finish guarantees qualification for the prestigious National English Schools Cross Country Championships at Hop Farm in Kent on 19 March. Athletes in the minor category can enter the primary schools’ National Championships in Prestwold Hall on March 26, but no qualification is needed. In the minor girls’ race Amira finished 5th, while in the…
Cotswold Hilly 100
BRAT Club is looking for runners for the Cotswold Hilly 100, a 100-mile road relay race over 10 legs.
Adam Peacock runs a new PB over 1500m at Cardiff
Congratulations to Adam Peacock, who ran a new personal best (PB) of 3:47.35 at the indoor meeting held on the 23rd Jan 2022 in Cardiff. Starting at the back of the field, Adam ran a controlled race and came through to finish in 3rd, smashing his own indoor club record set just two week’s ago. His time currently ranks him 7th fastest in the UK over 1500m
BRAT Men’s XC team set new record
The BRAT men’s XC team continued their marvellous season with another impressive performance at Warley Woods last Saturday, in the third race of the Birmingham League. With 40 BRAT finishers this was by some margin the biggest Club turnout we have ever seen in a senior XC race, and it made for an amazing atmosphere on the day; before, during and after the race. No other club had anywhere near this turnout, in fact 4 of the clubs didn’t finish B teams.Results on the day saw the BRAT A team finish 5th and we now lie 4th overall out of 16 teams. We are only 25 points off third place so all to play for in the final race at Leamington. The B team finished an impressive 4th on the day and also lie 4th overall. Full results are at https://www.birminghamccleague.co.uk/images/stories/bdccl/articlepdfs/XC_League_Archive/2021-22/2022-01-15-M1.pdf Many thanks to all who turned out to run or support, there seemed to be BRAT…