BRAT Club Junior Success at County XC Championships
Warley Woods – Saturday 13th December 2025 It was a fantastic day of racing at Warley Woods for the combined Worcestershire and Warwickshire County Cross Country Championships. BRAT Club’s junior athletes turned out in force, delivering standout performances across the age groups. From individual battles to dominant team victories, our young runners did the club proud in challenging winter conditions. Here is a roundup of the action from the Under 11 to Under 17 categories. Under 11 Boys: Warwickshire Team Champions! The U11 Boys put in a dominant display to bring home the Warwickshire Team Gold, beating stiff competition from Stratford and Leamington. Team Result: 🥇 1st Place – BRAT Club (14 points) – Logan Pearce, Leo Dunigan, Lucas Sacremento Guillaume. Under 11 Girls: Team Silver Our U11 Girls packed well to secure a brilliant Team Silver in the Warwickshire standings. Team Result: 🥈 2nd Place – BRAT Club (22…
Match 3 Report: BRAT Athletes Surge into Podium Contention at Newbold Revell 🚀
Date: 7th December 2025 Location: Newbold Revell (Hosted by Rugby & Northampton AC) The BRAT squad arrived at Newbold Revell yesterday determined to make a mark as we crossed the halfway point of the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League. On a true cross-country course hosted by Rugby & Northampton AC, our young athletes delivered exceptional performances, cementing the club’s position as a serious contender for the league podium. With three races down and two to go, BRAT sits in a fantastic 3rd position in the Overall League Standings with 16,424 points 🥉 after our FIRST EVER 2nd PLACE FINISH! We have successfully leapfrogged fierce local rivals Birchfield Harriers and are now firmly chasing the top two spots. It was a day defined not just by raw speed, but by intelligent pack running, impressive debuts, and remarkable individual progress. Here are the highlights from a brilliant day of racing…
Golden Jubilee of Service: Gordon Ainsley Wins Prestigious Award for 50 Years in Athletics
This year, Gordon Ainsley celebrates an incredible milestone: 50 years of volunteering in athletics. And in fitting tribute to his half-century of dedication, this extraordinary individual has been recognized with the very award for which he was nominated, cementing his place as one of the sport’s most impactful volunteers. A Passion Turned Lifelong Vocation Gordon’s journey began in the 1960s as a competitive athlete, specializing in the 400m hurdles at Chelmsford AC. Following a back injury, he transitioned his passion into coaching after moving to Birmingham in 1970. This marked the start of a deep commitment that would see him become a significant figure through several club evolutions—from Warley AC to Borough of Sandwell AC, then Birmingham Rowheath AC, and finally to the formation of the Birmingham Running, Athletics & Triathlon (BRAT) club in 2010. Gordon was instrumental in each merger, ensuring the club always focused on serving both the…
BRAT End of Season Open – Sunday 7th Sept
This was the first open that BRAT have hosted in many years. It was great to see athletes attending from far and wide to attend an event in which the majority of events sold out. A host of new officials supplemented the experienced core team of officials. With the exception of Chief Starter, Ray Lloyd, all officials were from within the club. Additionally, a largely new events team worked together behind the scenes to make the event work. Full results can be found on Entry4Sport on this link and on PowerOf10 here. Photos courtesy of Imageineering can be found on these links: We hope to see you at our events in 2026.
BRAT Awards 2024
It was great to see over 200 of you at our sell-out awards night back in November at our new venue of Moseley Rugby Club. A big thanks to everyone involved in making this happen and a huge congratulations to all of the awards winners. With such a massive number of athletes competing at the moment, gaining a nomination is an achievement in itself! Regardless of if you won an award, you are all a part of the big BRAT family and we look forward to what 2025 has in store. The awards winners from 2024 and all previous years can be found here. It’s well worth a look at who has been awarded the various trophies throughout the history of the club, there are some big names on there. Thanks to Toby Gosnall who captured the night on his camera, you can view all the photos here.
Sportshall Is Back!
Sportshall Athletics. If there was ever a form of organized chaos in athletics. This is it. The degree to which it is organized or chaotic varies from match to match and from club to club, but I’d like to think that BRAT veer slightly towards the organized side of things. It’s somewhat surprising, given the number of new faces we see taking part, not knowing quite what to expect. In Matt’s absence, I had the please of giving out the numbers. This gave a me a great opportunity to assess the general feeling of our athletes. I’d say that there were a lot of nerves on show, so congratulations to all of you that felt nervous at the start but conquered those nerves to put in some great performances. Our u15g team won overall and our u15b were pipped to first place by a handful of points. Out of our…
We are the Champions!
The BRAT senior track and field team have been crowned champions of the MidlandsAthletics League for 2024, some 35 years since we last achieved that feat!After a very encouraging 2023 in which we finished second in the top flight, we weredetermined this season to go one better – but I don’t think anyone thought that we wouldwin all four matches. After the disappointment of the May meeting at Nottingham being cancelled, the firstoccasion that all division one clubs met was at Nuneaton for the ‘Technical’ Match in earlyJune. All the Midlands clubs from all six divisions meet up and compete over the 8 mosttechnically challenging events (pole vault, steeplechase, hammer etc..). You competeagainst all six divisions and only at the end are points awarded against clubs from yourindividual division. It if sounds complicated then that’s because it is! However, it’s great funand as a result of our efforts we picked…
Heart of England League – Banbury – 23rd June 2024
the Heart of England league. Rewind back to this time 2 years ago and we were in division 3. Since then, we have had 2 consecutive seasons of promotion. My expectation was that we would hold our own and finish comfortably around the middle of the division.
BRAT Juniors Shine at Regional Sportshall Final
Over the winter, BRAT juniors have been taking part in the Birmingham Sportshall League with a chance to compete against other clubs in the Birmingham region. Sportshall offers the opportunity to compete in a range of different indoor track and field events, with many of our juniors competing for the club for the first time. Following on from our attendance in the league matches, we were delighted to have 12 BRAT athletes selected to represent Team Birmingham at the regional final on Sunday 3rd March. The regional final brings together four teams from across the wider West Midlands region – Birmingham, Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire – and it is a huge achievement for so many of our athletes to be selected for the county team. The morning session saw the Under 11 finals and BRAT had representation in both the boys and girls teams with Elliot Jones, Darcy…
BRAT Juniors Secure Promotion as League Winners!
Let’s be honest, it’s not the most enjoyable drive to Corby. The dull grey clouds over the motorway did little to inspire enthusiasm. As we arrived in the stand, the weather felt more like that of an early April warm-up meeting as opposed to a league competition in the middle of summer! As Europe basks in a heat-wave where people are advised to not go out and to keep their curtains closed, summer in Corby felt more like a game-of-thrones ‘north of the wall’ escapade. A strong and persistent head wind on the home straight put pay to the majority of our sprinter’s chances of PBs. If you achieved a PB at the weekend, then you should be very pleased with yourself. The dark skies were occasionally pierced with downpours and the odd bit of sunshine, perhaps this is as good as it gets in Corby??? On that backdrop, seeing…
The BRAT Juniors’ Winning Run Continues In Banbury!
Let’s set the scene. Meeting 1 in Stourport in June. The BRAT junior team delivered a crushing victory, finishing over 200 points clear of second place Banbury. Let’s not forget, we were only promoted to this division last year, so many of the existing clubs have no idea who we are and how strong our athletes are! It must have been a shock for the other teams, but with Banbury hosting this recent meeting, it was the perfect opportunity for them to put out their strongest possible team, and they did not disappoint! To complicate matters even more, this meeting unfortunately clashed with the Inter County Schools’ Championships (Mason Trophy) where we had a lot of athletes competing. In their absence, it was left to others to step up and make their performances count! What’s more…..Oxfordshire don’t compete in the Mason Trophy, so Banbury didn’t lose any athletes for this…
Heart of England League – A Crushing Victory For BRAT Juniors
It’s that time of the year again. Our first BRAT junior track & field league outing…and you know what that means….an opportunity for me to put together my usual protracted write-up for the website. As always, I start with my usual caveat that I can’t mention everyone, but rest assured, I have a close eye on all of you both during the event itself and via the results. I will be chatting with all our athletes at some point, hopefully! Taking a step back from results and performances for the moment, there are a few things that underpin our (fantastic) results: Officials (timekeepers, starters, track judges, field event helpers). I’m starting with officials as it our #1 most important point. In all honestly, officials are one of our most limiting factors when it comes to developing as a club. To host our own events, we need many more. A big…