8:53am Thursday 4th March 2010
By Andy McAllister
Leigh Lennon has finished second in the 800 metres at the Aviva England U20 Indoor Championships which were held last weekend at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.
The in-form pole vault ace Holly Bleasdale also medalled at the games.
The 18-year-old Lennon went into the competition as the defending champion and in a straight final went nearly a second and a half faster than last year, but was beaten by an exceptionally fast 2:07.79 from Ciara Mageean.
As the winner is Irish, Leigh has the consolation that she was the first English woman in the competition.
Her time of 2:09.85 was a season’s best and leaves her second in the early season national ranking list. Leigh’s Ribble Valley team mate Sam Yates ran his socks off in the heats of the men’s 800m to beat his personal best by two and a half seconds with 1:54.03 and qualify for the final as a fastest loser.
Unfortunately, the 17-year- old had nothing left to give in the final and was fifth in 2:02.21.
Last week’s Celtic Cup winner Holly Bleasdale was in pole vault action again, but was a little down on her Cardiff form suffering three failures at 3.80m after a first time clearance at her opening height of 3.60m.
With Katie Byres of Sale and Ellie Besford from Chelmsford both succeeding at 3.80m and Byres going on to reach 4.01m, it was bronze for the 18-year old Blackburn Harrier this time around.
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