Leigh Lennon has been selected to make her England debut at the Home Counties Junior Indoor International at Cardiff on February 3.

The 16-year-old has just moved from the under 17s into the under 20s for the forthcoming track and field season, yet she produced a unique double at the Northern Indoor Champion-ships last weekend.

On Saturday, the Ribble Valley athlete fought her way through a qualifying round of the 400 metres before edging a desperately close final on the dip.

She set an indoor personal best of 57.88 seconds to defeat Sarah Lucas from Trafford by a mere two hundredths.

The following day she was back at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield for a straight final in the 800m, and this time the result was never in doubt.

Lennon set the pace from the off, eventually breaking the beam seven seconds clear.

Her time of 2:10.65 seconds broke Steph Rowe's Championship record by three seconds and prompted a spontaneous round of applause from the spectators.

It was easily an indoor PB and within a whisker of the 2:09.97 she set outdoors, although it equates to much better on the tighter circuit.

No U20 woman has won both indoor titles in the same year before, and the England selectors were soon on the telephone to offer her a choice of events for Cardiff.

Lennon, who started her career at Hyndburn AC, has opted for the 400m where she will be England's sole representative against runners from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She is hoping that good things come in threes as she has her selection interview for a place with the On Camp with Kelly team coming up this weekend.

The Northern U20 Championships also incorporated the senior competition, where Kelly Hilton struck gold in the triple jump before being prevented from achieving a notable double by one of the country's genuine world class athletes.

The Chorley Athletic Club athlete reached 11.77m to win the triple by 55cm, but her 5.52m in the long jump was beaten by Jessica Ennis who took fourth in the heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships last summer.

Our own multi-events specialist Eleanor Marken-dale was our third winner, the Pendle woman taking the U20 high jump gold medal with a clearance of 1.55m.

Paul Bradshaw and Robbie Schofield won hard-fought silver medals in the 800m, with both having to negotiate qualifying rounds.

In the U20 race, Ribble Valley's Schofield came up against an exceptional opponent in Chris Smith, who slowed the pace down in a tactical race before outkicking the opposition - hence Schofield's apparently modest time of 2:01:33.

By contrast, Bradshaw from Blackburn Harriers raced round in an excellent 1:52.69, but Gatehead's Kieran Flannery still managed 1:52:06 for the gold in the senior race.

There were medals in the U20s 3,000m for two East Lancashire athletes, albeit in sparse fields. Blackburn Harrier Rachel Wood made silver in the women's race in 10:25.88 and Nathan Riding from Ribble Valley took bronze after suffering an injury in the men's race.