TWO East Lancashire athletes have finished the year heading the United Kingdom rankings.

Steeple-chaser Chris Hart and hammer thrower Simon Bissell lead the way while a third Under 17, Laura Finucane, shares the limelight with top six placings in four events.

Until recently Hart and Bissell were team-mates at Burnley, the club which gave them their grounding in the sport - and it was as a Burnley runner that Hart hit the heights this summer before his recent departure to Blackburn Harriers.

The first indication that Hart would have such a momentous season came at the Lancashire Schools Championship at Blackpool where he beat Dave Lewis' 24-year-old record in the 1,500 metres steeplechase.

Selection for the English Schools Championship was assured and he took victory in 4:19.85, the fastest time in the country this year. He wasn't finished there though, because within a month he had claimed his second national title when he won the AAAs steeplechase.

Hart reckons the season finished too early as he was just finding his best form, so he feels there is still more improvement to come.

After last week's win in the Reebok Cross Country at Edinburgh he will be flying to Belfast for the next round but his number one priority is the round at Nottingham which doubles as the Inter Counties Championship.

Hart is looking forward to the summer too when as an Under 20 the steeplechase distance rises to 2,000m. His target for the season is to gain selection for the World Youth Games in Canada.

Celebrating his 17th birthday on Christmas Day, Bissell is already six feet two inches tall and seventeen and a half stones - and hasn't stopped growing yet!

The ideal build for a thrower and a rugby prop forward, his dilemma is that he excels at both sports. Although he signed a three year contract with top rugby league outfit Wigan Warriers last December, so far he has managed to combine both interests.

When he left Burnley in the summer of 2000, the family moved to West Houghton near Bolton and he joined Manchester's Sale Harriers.

As rugby matches tend to be on Saturdays with athletics on Sunday, he finds he can do both and probably won't have to decide between the two until his current Wigan contract runs out.

Bissell was forced to miss the Greater Manchester Schools Championships and therefore English Schools, but made amends by winning the AAAs hammer title.

He was also a winner in the Northern Championships which was memorable for Simon not only because it was the first fixture to be held at Manchester's Commonwealth Games Stadium.

The hammer event took place during heavy thunder storms and was abandoned in the third round after Simon lost control of a throw and was hurtled across the ring. Fortunately he had already thrown a winning distance.

The hammer has always been his favourite event, but the discus remains important to him and he ranks fifth in the discipline with 48.61metres.

Pendle's Laura Finucane alternated between the 300m and 800m all summer, competing at the highest level in both events.

In the Northern Championships at the City of Manchester Stadium, she won the 300m in 39.53 seconds but it was a race that she didn't win that she set her fastest time.

In the AAAs she responded to the presence of Gemma Nichol who represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games to set her best mark of 39.03 seconds. That performance placed her second on the day and third in the National Rankings.

Finucane did win a National title though taking the English Schools 800m in a PB 2:07.44 which elevated her to fourth in the rankings. A week later she all but matched the time with 2:07.56 as she made a winning debut in the Home Schools International in Glasgow.

National Rankings: Under 13 Boys: Curtis Pearce - Blackburn Harriers (800m 2:19.5 14th, 1500m 4:45.5 5th) Under 13 Girls: Eleanor Markendale - Pendle (long jump 4.78m 7th) Leigh Lennon - Hyndburn (600m 1:48.3 12th, 800m 2:27.74 16th) Imogen Walters (shot 9.12m 15th) Under 15 Boys: Ben Rusius - Pendle (800m 2:03.69 14th, 1500m 4:16.29 10th, 3000m 9:22.57 5th) Under 15 Girls: Anna Griffiths - Hyndburn (75m hurdles 11.9 21st, shot 10.85m 13th, pentathlon 2732 points 13th) Alexis Walker - Burnley (javelin 30.23m 20th) Under 17 Men: Danny Whittaker -Burnley (100m 10.8 (wind assisted) 3rd, 200m 22.28 14th) Matt Wood - Blackburn Harriers (800m 1:56.93 19th) Chris Hart - Burnley (1500m 3:57.14 6th, 3000m 8:43.28 4th, 1500m steeplechase 4:19.85 1st) Lee Pursglove - Chorley AC (high jump 1.90m 13th) Simon Bissell - Sale Harriers (discus 48.61m 5th, hammer 65.29 1st, also ranked 4th in Under 20s heavier hammer with 57.82m) Under 17 Women: Louise Dickinson - Park High School (200m 25.27 16th, 300m 41.1 28th) Laura Finucane - Pendle (200m 24.9 6th, 300m 39.03 3rd, 400m 55.33 2nd, 800m 2:07.44 4th) Under 20 Men: Colin Bailey - Burnley (high jump 2.00m 14th, decathlon with junior implements 5853 points 12th)