Pendle Athletic Club have fielded three promotion winning teams this summer, and the athletes who helped them to success received the plaudits at their end of season presentation evening held at Nelson Cricket Club.

The certificates and trophies were presented by Great Britain international high jumper Susan Moncrieff.

And the honours were shared across the age groups after the juniors had won Division 2EC of the Northern Young Athletes League and in the Northern League for seniors the combined Burnley and Pendle team bounced back into the third division at the first attempt after dropping only one point all season.

To complete the hat-trick the Mid Lancs League, where all the age groups take part, saw further gains with the women and girls’ team winning promotion to the top tier.

During 2009, Eleanor Markendale won further international honours, representing Great Britain in the pentathlon indoors and heptathlon outdoors.

On both occasions the British team won their matches.

There was an England debut for fell runner Emma Spencer after winning the bronze medal in the U16 English Championships.

With Spencer’s help, England U16 girls won the team prize in the Home International at Sedbergh and her country won the overall team award.

Meanwhile, middle distance star Laura Finucane put recent injuries behind her to finish fifth in a special race featuring Kelly Holmes’ protégés at the Aviva London Grand Prix meeting at Crystal Palace.

It would take an exceptional athlete to overshadow them and win the Rotary Club Young Athlete of the Year Award, but Lucy Chadwick had a dream season to do just that.

The U15 shot putter from Colne was quickly into her stride putting 10.80m at the Pendle Winter Warmer meeting at the end of March, the furthest outdoors in the country so far in the fledgling season.

She set two championship best performances in the Lancashire Championships with 11m in the shot and 34.14m in the hammer, and carried her form forward from Blackpool to Gateshead where she won three medals at the Northern Championships – two gold and one bronze – and all with personal best distances.

She earned a crack at the English Schools’ Championships with victory in the Lancashire Schools’ Championships, but saved her best for the biggest occasion.

Chadwick’s very first throw at the English Schools’ Championships at Sheffield was 11.66m, which ranked her second in the country, and although the lead gradually closed to just three centimetres during the course of the afternoon, the gold medal in the junior girls’ age band was hers.

The Primet High School student, who has recently turned 15, closed the season with fifth in the English Championships at Bedford, broke two meeting records at the Pendle Open, and raised her PB in the shot once again to 11.78m at Wigan.