Athletes from Blackburn Harriers and Pendle Athletic Club have had much to smile about in 2007 after playing leading roles in surely the best year for East Lancashire athletics in the last decade.

The Harriers will take forward the legacy of an excellent season in track and field, culminating in their promotion to Division One of the Northern Senior Track and Field League for the first time.

This is no ordinary promotion as the pyramid system narrows from four Division Twos to a single top tier, and they made it at their fourth attempt in the play-offs.

Now all the seniors will benefit from a higher level of competition next summer.

It would have been an easy decision to award the Round Chase Trophy for the Team of the Year to the senior squad.

If 2006 was the big breakthrough year for middle distance runner Alison Leonard, then 2007 was the year she became an international star.

In July she won the silver medal in the 800 metres at the IAAF World Youth Games at Ostrava in the Czech Republic.

Mick Morton, the 1978 World Junior Cross Country Champion presented her with her award 30 years after his greatest race, and the cheering audience was treated to a film of Leonard's triumph as well as a clip from Mick's win in Glasgow.

Tom Cornthwaite was the Male Athlete of the Year after once again representing the England U23 Team on the fells, then ending the season by winning a fell race and a cross country on the same day.

He was handed his fell running award by former Harrier and three time Three Peaks winner Harry Walker.

Meanwhile, Aaron Hargreaves was presented with his road award by international John Calvert, a Harriers stalwart from the 1970s.

While Pendle lack Blackburn's numbers, clearly they are doing plenty right as the production line of international athletes the calibre of Laura Finucane, Eleanor Markendale, Sophie Hitchon, Ben Lindsay and Anna Anderson continues.

Finucane finished sixth in the 800 metres at both the European U23 Championships in Hungary, and the World University Games in Bangkok, and the 21-year old was honoured by her club by being invited to present the trophies.

In addition to the club awards, two members were also honoured at the Pendle Sports Awards which were decided by a panel of different agencies in the area.

Heptathlete Eleanor Markendale was named as the Rising Star after making her England debut in the Home Countries U20 Match.

It completed her set after previously representing English Schools and Great Britain. Sophie Hitchon became the first U17 woman in the United Kingdom to pass the 50 metre mark in the hammer, and continued to break her own record numerous times during the summer ending at 54.56m.

After dominating the domestic opposition and gaining her first taste of international competition, Hitchon's record breaking was nominated as the outstanding sporting moment by the Pendle Sports Awards panel, and won her the Rotary Club Young Athlete of the Year Award with her club.

Ben Lindsay represented the U20s Great Britain and NI Team in the World Championships and the European Championships during the year to pick up the cross country award, while Anderson was the female winner and also took the fell running trophy.

Anna represented her country in Fell Running's World Trophy and was England's first counter in the U20s race in Switzerland.

Earlier in the season she won U18s English Fell Championship.

Anderson wasn't the only fell champion at the club on 2007, as Dawn Richards was the over 40 veteran BOFRA Champion.

As she was unable to attend the BOFRA awards evening, Barry Scholes, Chair of the British Open Fell Running Association was invited to make the presentation.