Frustration grows for Chesterfield AC as ongoing restrictions lead to uncertaintity

Chesterfield AC have been unable to compete and are finding training sessions restrictive.

Although the club are now holding regular training sessions twice a week, they are limited by restrictions on both equipment and the number of those taking part.

The popular club, which was founded in 1978, have also had to switch training away from their usual base at Tupton Hall School.

Jon Baker, club chairman, said: “Since the government relaxed the rules on meeting in groups outdoors we have been able to resume training.

Chesterfield AC have had to turn members away during reduced training sessions.

“Although most of our coaches have returned, Tupton Hall School is not available to us so we’ve had to meet in local parks.

“Our main club session is taking place at the Avenue Country Park, however, we’ve cut sessions back to an hour instead of the usual 90 minutes as there are no facilities.

“We’re also having to limit the number of athletes we can have at sessions and have a booking system for athletes to register their interest.

“It means that we’re only able to cater for a small minority of our members as our coaches are working on a 1:5 ratio when they’d often work with 10-15 athletes at a session.

“We’ve also not been able to accept new people into the club despite having a number of enquiries.”

And with strict guidelines still in place over the spread of coronavirus, the club has felt a major knock-on effect with how they handle the little equipment they do have.

“We also have very little equipment as most of it is stored at Tupton,” Mr Baker added.

“What equipment we do have needs to be cleaned before and after athletes have touched it, which of course is more onerous on coaches than would usually be the case as under normal circumstances equipment could be shared.

“It means that most of our sessions are running and jumping based and throws are having to be neglected.

“The feedback we’re getting from parents is that they are glad we’re back training and they, like the club, are grateful to our coaches for persevering under difficult circumstances.

“In truth our coaches are glad to be out and delivering sessions again.”

The club usually competes in the Derbyshire Mini Leagues, Northern League, North Midlands Cross Country League and UK Youth Development Leagues.

Over the years they have produced many county, northern and national champions.

But they are now facing an uncertain future over when and where they will be able to train after summer ends.

“At present we’re unsure when we will be able to resume training at Tupton,” added Mr Baker.

“The company we hire the facility from have furloughed all their staff so our emails to them are going unanswered.

“With the school only partially open to a small number of students and with the school holidays upon us we’re having to work on the basis that we’ll be stuck in local parks until at least September.

“This summer’s competitions have almost all been wiped out with all leagues being cancelled as well as a number of area and national championships.

Usually we’d be looking to indoor competitions over the winter, but with the way social distancing looks set to continue it seems unlikely that these will go ahead at present, as will our indoor training.

“Should we not be able to access the school from September onwards continuing training may become difficult as we will need lighting.”

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