Sutton's youth sports teams achieved major successes at the London Youth Games finals, held last weekend Saturday 30 June and Sunday 1 July at Crystal Palace Sports Centre. 

The Sutton Squad, which consisted of 36 different sports teams aged 11-17, braved the wet and blustery weather and recorded Sutton's best ever result by finishing in sixth place out of the 33 London boroughs.

The London Youth Games is the largest youth sports event in Europe with over 10,000 young people from across London taking part.  Over the last four months over 300 of Sutton's young athletes have been training hard in preparation for the Games.

The weekend began with the London Mini Games where 80 of Sutton's primary school children aged 9-11 years competed in fun, mixed sports competitions in football, swimming, indoor athletics, tag rugby, hockey and hi-five netball.  The highlight of the day was the boys and girls football team winning the final of their competition.

The senior athletes took over at the weekend with several major honours going to Sutton and a whole clutch of individual medals.

Top honours went to the tennis squad who fought a tightly contested match with Bexley to lift the winners' trophy. 

The boys and girls disability swimming squads once again came out on top at an event earlier in June to win the boys competition and finish a close second in the girls. 

The girls gymnastics floor and vault team were thrilled to win the gold team medal following their winning performance on Saturday at Crystal Palace.

There were lots of other incredible team performances with the angling team back in the honours reaching second place and the badminton team winning the bronze team medal in some very exciting matches. 

Other teams who broke into the top five boroughs were: diving, cycling and boys swimming in fourth place and girls judo, girls disability football and archery in fifth place.

There were many other superb individual performances that brought Sutton gold, silver and team medals in all sorts of sports, including: boys and girls karate, girls and boys judo, archery, disability athletics, boys and girls swimming and cycling.

The finals weekend was a culmination of months of training and trials held across the borough and weeks of preliminary competitions held in various venues around London.

All the young athletes who represented Sutton either live in Sutton or attend a Sutton school and many train regularly throughout the year at various sports clubs across the borough. 

Sutton's sports development team, who co-ordinate Sutton's entry into the Games, work in partnership with the borough's schools and sports clubs throughout the year.  All the teams are managed on a voluntary basis by local sports clubs, coaches and teachers.

Sutton's young athletes will be celebrating their success with the Mayor of Sutton in October as part of a joint event with the Sutton Sports Awards, to be held at the Secombe Theatre, Sutton.

For full results and further information about the London Youth Games and Sutton Sports Awards, visit the London Borough of Sutton web site on: www.sutton.gov.uk/leisure/sportsdevelopment

or call on: 020 8770 4667 or e-mail: beverley.rand@sutton.gov.uk