A Return to the Birmingham Sportshall League
It’s been 3 years since we had a Sportshall League, the last competition was February 2020! With that in mind, it was great to get back to what I casually refer to as “organised chaos” (it over ran the time slot by an hour, so i’m going to go with simply “chaos” for this weekend’s event!) Anyway, it’s a fantastic opportunity for our juniors, particularly the younger juniors, to get some competition experience over what is often a long cold winter. Many of the athletes have never competed for the club before, so it’s great to see them getting involved. I have a number of coaches to thank for picking the BRAT team, but the general principle we went with was enjoyment and inclusivity. What was particularly pleasing as a team manager was successfully collecting all the numbers in at the end of the event. Just kidding (although I still…
Another strong XC performance for the BRAT Junior Team!
Another excellent turn out with 59 BRATs competing on the fast grassland course at Newbold Revel. After our excellent 4th place at the first match at Walsall, we again finished 4th on the day which consolidated our overall position in the league. The standout performance on the day was Nya 5th in U11 Girls, and she has two more years in this age group, a massive improvement by Josh finishing 6th in U13 Boys and Jack 9th U15 Boys and Amira 10th in U13 Girls. But remember this is a team effort and all the athletes contribute to the overall score! If you finish 50th you score 151 points, so it all adds to the performance of the club. it was great seeing so many athletes out enjoying themselves and especially the support of the parents and team managers! The next match in the league is at Warley Woods on…
Another Inspired BRAT Junior XC Performance!
Warley Woods, race 2. Now, juniors, I know you may feel you worked hard, ran your socks off (or your shoes off, in 2 cases I know of…!), pushed to the line and given it absolutely all you had. BUT…what I have to say is “think of the parents!”. Do you know how hard it is to support at Warley Woods? I saw mums and dads going up and down those hills over and over again, toddlers and pets in tow, screaming at the top of their lungs! So, parents, you have my full respect when I say WELL DONE! As for the juniors, yes, I suppose you didn’t do too bad too. In addition to some top 3 and top 10 placings, we had a much strengthened U15 girls team, with 3 of the runners making their season debut. A special mention to Tilly & Katie who kept going…
BRAT JUNIORS’ AMAZING XC PERFORMANCE
What a day out! A few people have contributed to this write-up, but I’d just like to say a huge WELL DONE to everyone that got involved in our first cross-country since 2019. I’m fully aware of how daunting a task it must have been, I did start my athletics journey as a cross-country runner, many (MANY!) years ago after all. No matter how you felt you performed, I, along with the various team managers and coaches thought you did fantastic. Have no doubt, your contribution to the team is absolutely invaluable. As Dan mentions below, every BRAT runner that overtakes someone, knocks a rival team one place down the results! Bookmark the next date, a home fixture for us at Warley Woods on the 14th of November! If you’re not already involved and want to be, e-mail me here. U11 Girls 8 girls toed the line for the first…
BRAT Junior Athletics – End of Season
U15 twins Lily and May Smith travelled to Stretford, Manchester on 26th September, with both doing the 100m and 200m and Lily also competing in the Long Jump. Lily was tantalisingly close to her PB in the long jump again with a jump of 4.80m and May beat her PB in the 200m by 0.13 seconds to run a time of 30.26. U13 Alba Smith-Pena competed in the BCT Junior Aquathon on 26th September where she was just 10 seconds off of 3rd place. This is a fantastic achievement considering swimming has been off the agenda until recently so she has not been able to get any practice in. The anticipated wet forecast did nothing to dampen the spirits of the 12 BRATS who travelled to Nuneaton on 4th October. It was U9 Erin and Josephine Colclough’s first outing – they obviously have their dad’s speedy legs as they finished…
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.