The Balfour Beatty London Youth Games finals at the weekend (2-3 July) marked the end of a 9 month competition calendar, whereby teams across 30 sports from all 33 London Boroughs compete for medals and points.
The Games started in November with Cross Country and finished with the finals at the weekend. Hackney had teams competing 44 competitions, winning 8 team medals and 48 individual medals. For each result the borough’s are allocated points per position and the top 28 scores count towards the overall London Total (Jubilee Trophy), this year the borough achieved 7th position, maintaining our position from 2015. This was without one of our best competitions (para Athletics) taking place to poor weather which would undoubtedly seen us finish top five overall for the first time.
It was extremely tight between 7th – 2nd with a spread of 45 points separating the 6 teams so Hackney are now closing the gap on the recognised top borough’s!
The Badminton team managed and coached by Black Arrows coaches Amardeep Panesar, and assistant coaches Alfie Kelland and Tom Willingham had a tough draw in the Badminton Prelims on Saturday 11th June at Redbridge Sports Centre, Essex, where they were placed in the same group as Kingston, Lewisham and Waltham Forest.
The team finished 3rd in their group, and 17th overall in the Badminton, with those points contributing to Hackney’s 7th overall position.
Well done to all those who took part.
Ruben Galbraith-Goode
(L-R) Beauty Odeyemi & Jessica Amponsah
Ruben & Reade Lewis