Barking & Dagenham aces light up London Youth Games

08 July 2010

YOUTH TEAM: Barking & Dagenham finished 22nd at the 2010 London Youth Games

BARKING & DAGENHAM could only replicate last year's 22nd place finish in this year's London Youth Games, but they were lifted by the outstanding performance of the 9-11 year-old team in the competition's younger brother.

The Mini Youth Games were held on Thursday at Crystal Palace, and the borough's indoor athletics side secured a tremendous first place.

The team of six boys from schools including Monteagle, Warren, St Margarets and Cambell, added the trophy to their East London Championships win on March 25.

Team manager Mr Hoyte, of Monteagle Primary School was understandably delighted with his boys, and claimed it is testament to their hard work and commitment.

"This is such a great achievement for the boys and I am so proud of them", he beamed. "My colleague, Mr Thompson and I have worked so hard for this and we are delighted. To come in first place ahead of 33 other boroughs is amazing."

Mayor of London Boris Johnson was accompanied by Olympic champion and event patron Christine Ohuruogu to dish out the gongs for the ecstatic team.

Olympic 100m finalist Jeanette Kwayke and England and Arsenal international Rachel Yankey also visited the Games to keep an eye on the emerging talent, and would have been mightily impressed by the Barking & Dagenham showing.

On the senior front, Barking & Dagenham Sports Development Officer Emma Gillan believes the team did well considering key withdrawals.

"We had really high hopes for our boy's basketball team this weekend," she said. "But unfortunately they had to pull out.

"After that setback, I actually thought we might have dropped a few places, but the team has done really well to keep our position".

The Games are Europe's largest annual sports event for youngsters aged 11-17, and the borough has been fighting it out since early June in a bid to improve last year's showing.

The weekend at Crystal Palace saw the culmination of the 2010 Balfour Beatty-sponsored competition, and after the disappointment of the basketball event, the stars of the show for the borough were the girls netball team.

Made up of players from New Cambell Netball Club and Manor Junior School, the team lost in the final to local rivals Redbridge to claim silver.

The girls had beaten Havering 4-2 in the semi-final for a guaranteed medal, but Redbridge proved a hurdle too far as they were crushed 12-2.

Other results at the weekend included a superb bronze medal for the boys' cricket team, as they narrowly lost out to borough nemesis Redbridge, in a thrilling semi-final at Lords.

Silver was as good as it got for the borough though, as a second place finish in the boys floor and vault matched the netball result on Saturday.

Taking place what seems like a lifetime ago, on June 14 at the Goresbrook Leisure Centre, the boys took advantage of home support to take silver behind eventual winners Southwark.

They helped Barking & Dagenham to a total points finish tally of 859, a big drop from last year's effort of 892 and light years behind overall winners Bromley on 1,124.

Despite general disappointment, there were an abundance of top-10 finishes to lift borough spirits, including top-five placings for the boys cricket, girls basketball, and girls disabled swimming teams.

The kayak sprint squad took sixth, both disabled athletics teams finished eighth, as did the boys' swimmers, while the rowers, disabled boys' swimmers and boys' table tennis team all finished in respectable ninth places.