PENDLE athletes Sophie Hitchon and Ben Lindsay have struck gold at the North of England Senior and Under 20 Championships at Wavertree, and Eleanor Markendale has captured a silver medal.

And to add to the club's success, Laura Finucane has lowered her personal best for 800 metres in Prague.

Hitchon is only 15 years old, and had already won the gold medal at the Under-17 Northern Championships last month.

But she was undaunted at stepping up to contest the U-20 age group, and although already leading with one throw to go, she set yet another UK Under-17 record of 54.38 metres to seal victory with more than six metres to spare.

Subsequently, she has been chosen to represent England for the first time in Croatia on July 7.

She has also set the World Youth Games qualifying mark, but has opted instead to represent Lancashire in the English Schools' Championships.

Winning that would give her a chance to compete for England Schools in the Home International.

The Lancashire Schools Team will be announced later this week, and we will bring you news of it on Tuesday.

Versatile Ben Lindsay has already represented England on the fells and Great Britain over the country, but he proved that he is no slouch on the track, with a comprehensive win in the under-20 men's 5000m.

Running in his Aldershot Farnham and District colours, the 19-year-old student clocked 15:37.44, to win by more than two minutes.

Multi-events specialist Eleanor added to Pendle's tally with silver in the under-20s long jump with her best leap of 5.56m, leaving her just seven centimetres shy of the winner. She also reached the final of the 200m.

Laura Finucane offered more evidence that her career is moving forward once more after recovering from stress fractures.

Having lowered her 800m PB for the first time since 2004, to 2:02.4, in South Africa earlier this year, she knocked off another second at the Memorial Josefa Odlozila meeting in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, June 13, with 2:01.35.

Winner Oksana Zbrozhek, from Russia, was timed at 1:58.84, the fastest by a European athlete this year, and Laura is now 18th in the European senior rankings.

Back at Liverpool, Blackburn Harriers Sarah Henton and Pauline Powell won silver medals in the senior women's events in the Northern Championships.

Sarah threw the discus 42.40 metres, while Pauline registered 17:14.49 in the 5,000 metres.

There was no medal for Christina Carr, who finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final, but she bettered her own club record with 65.41 secondsm and she still has another two years in the under-20 age group.

Paul Whittle, with fifth in the senior men's 110m hurdles, set a PB of 15.85 seconds, and there was a best for Rachel Wood, who dipped under five minutes in the under-20s 1500m.

Ben Fish was fifth in the senior 5,000m in 14:38.55.

The senior women's triple jump yielded two medals for local athletes, as Nicola Breaks, from Hyndburn, just edged Chorley AC's Kelly Hilton for the silver. The margin was just four centimetres - 11.14m and 11.10m.

Hyndburn's Lauren Grime made the senior hammer and discus finals with a best of seventh in the hammer, while club mate Stephen Sumner took sixth in the under 20s 200m in 22.65 seconds.

Former Burnley thrower Simon Bissell, now representing Bolton, left Liverpool with a bronze medal in the senior hammer, with a best throw of 48.44m, and Danny Eckersley was the sole Burnley finalist with eighth in the senior 400m hurdles.

Chorley Harrier Vicky Gill came in sixth in the senior women's 1500m with 4:32.15, and Ashleigh Williams finished in the same position in the U-20 women's 400m in 62.65 seconds for Ribble Valley AC.