Duo make their mark in Malta

10:28am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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Eleanor Markendale and Leigh Lennon were winning members of the first ever Northern Track and Field team to travel abroad.

An Under 20s squad was selected for a trip to Malta to compete against athletes from Egypt, Tunisia, Luxembourg and Malta most of whom were seniors.

Pendle Athletic Club's Eleanor was named women's captain and she set the tone by recovering from a first round no jump to take a convincing victory in the long jump.

Her winning leap of 5.65 metres was aided by a strong tail wind, but that applied equally to her competitors and she had nearly 40 centimetres in hand. Leigh, from Ribble Valley Athletic Club, was just as convincing.

In the 800 metres she returned 2:09.77, a performance described as stunning on the Northern website. Markendale's work wasn't finished though and she finished third in the 200 metres behind two senior Maltese women, and she also ran the first leg in the 4 x 100 metres relay where the North was second to the home team.