Champion Grant leads Chesterfield athletes to double title success

Alicia Barrett, who won a silver medal at the Northern Senior Indoor Championships for U17 and U20s.

Grant secured the overall U17 men’s title, which was decided over four races, by finishing second at Wollaton Park in Nottingham, and duly led his team to overall victory too.

Other members of the team were Tom Spencer, who took second in the overall individual spoils after crossing the line in fifth spot on the day, and Oscar Cousins, who finished third both on the day and overall.

It all added up to a team title and a remarkable 1-2-3 on the individual front for the talented Chesterfield trio.

In the U15 boys’ race at Wollaton Park, Thomas Marriott came home 19th, while in the senior men’s event, Ewan Spencer was 20th overall and third U20.

This race was also the target for Daniel Cresswell, who is in training for the London Marathon in April and was pleased with a final position of 61st from 258 finishers.

Chesterfield AC athletes also distinguished themselves at the two-day Northern Athletics Senior Indoor Championships for U17s and U20s, which was held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield over the weekend.

Oliver Dakin took pride of place by dominating the U20 men’s 60m hurdles, which he won in a new personal-best (PB) time and a club record of 8.57 seconds.

There was a silver medal for Hannah Moody in the U17 women’s pole vault, where she equalled her PB of 2.80 metres, with teammate Lottie Hall in fifth place after a new PB of 2.60 metres.

Silver medals were also gained by Lois Green and Will Foot. Green was second in the U20 women’s pole vault with a leap of 2.90 metres, while Foot took the runner-up spot in the U17 men’s pole vault.

Alicia Barrett had a busy opening day at the championships, taking the silver medal in the senior women’s 60m hurdles and then finishing fourth in the final of the 60m after winning her heat.

In the senior men's 400m heats, Connor McQuade just missed out on automatic qualification for the semi-finals, taking third place behind last year’s champion.

Lots of promise was also shown by Josh Turkington, who was making his Northern Championships debut. Competing in the U17 men’s shot, he came seventh with 8.41 metres, which was only three centimetres shy of his best-ever throw.

All in all, the weekend represented a terrific start to 2020 for the Chesterfield club, which augurs well for the rest of the year.