Athletics: Field athletes star in Derby victory

DERBY AC will be promoted to Division 3EC of the North of England Track and Field League as champions.

Keith Bullock's side finished 71 points ahead of second-place Newark AC in the final meeting at the Harvey Hadden Stadium.

The field athletes dominated with Marcus Francis, fresh from competing in Crawley for Phil Harries' side, setting a pb in the hammer of 42.57m. He also took first place in the shot put (11.80m) and discus (39.58m).

Jenna Winson celebrated a triple success on the field by winning the hammer (44.27m), shot (9.02m) and discus (32.02m).

Sarah Chesterman set a pb of 31.2m when winning the B hammer and Hayley Davis set a season's best throw of 33.56m in taking the women's javelin.

Ryan Winson (41.51m) and Nick Rowton (38.32m) won the A and B javelin events.

Suzy Palmer was just short of a personal best when finishing second in the high jump with a leap of 1.60m.

In the men's high jump, JJ Heath jumped 1.95m to take top honours.

On the track, Derby's women dominated the proceedings with Suzy Palmer and Naomi Reid winning the 100m A and B races.

Lauren Caple won the 200m and 400m A races in 27.1secs and 59.8 secs respectively as well as helping the 4x100m and 4x400m women's relay teams to victory.

Natalie Shaw won the 800m A and 400m B races in 2:27.2mins and 61.1secs respectively.

Newcomer Ana Lupan finished second in the 3,000m in 1:28.3, while Jamie Gill returned after injury to win the 100m in 11.8secs.