London Youth Games 2006

Over three hundred young athletes from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames have competed in the 29th London Youth Games over June and July. The Richmond team is organised by the Borough’s Sports Development Team. The games provide young Londoners with the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of sports and get a foot on the sporting ladder. The event also helps to develop and encourage young athletes sporting talent and the Richmond team certainly played their part.

The culmination of the event began with the London Mini Youth Games on Thursday 6th July at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre with the cream of Richmond’s sporting juniors putting eight weeks of intense training into practice. Their efforts paid off and Richmond’s team grabbed the glory winning four gold medals from the eight events, our best ever result. Richmond beat the other 32 London Boroughs to the top spots in hockey, netball, tag rugby and swimming. The football team stormed up the rankings from last year’s 15th place to finish 4th. The basketball and athletics teams also put up a good challenge with the basketball side finishing in 20th and athletics in 28th.

The icing on the cake was when a Richmond netball player, Reiss Niles, was offered a place on the England Netball County training squad. Reiss, a pupil at Bishop Perrin Primary School, was a member of last year’s youth games team and this year has played with her school and trained at the newly-formed Richmond Netball Club. Following another great performance in the netball final, she was approached to join the County squad.

Richmond’s Cabinet Member for Sport, Cllr John Coombs, said: “It is a fantastic achievement to be chosen from the 300 players on the day and we hope Reiss will continue up the rankings to one day play for England. That would be fabulous.”

The finals of the Main Youth Games took place on Saturday and Sunday July 8th and 9th at Crystal Palace with Richmond teams competing in 33 sports. Overall the borough finished 15th, one step up from last year’s 16th spot.

The borough also had a massive seven top five finishes this year with the boys volleyball team climbing from 15th place up to 3rd. The other teams on the top five honours board were girls karate – 4th place; angling – 4th; with girls cricket and hockey, and the cycling and netball teams all scooping 5th spot.

The Sports Development Team would like to say a big thank you to all team managers, volunteers, parents and participants for their contribution to the London Youth Games.

Referring to the triumphs in the Mini Youth Games, Cllr Coombs said:

“Never before has the Richmond team had such a haul of gold medals in the Mini Games. It is a fantastic achievement and all the team members deserve our congratulations. The borough’s team also had a great showing in the Main Youth Games with a stunning seven top five finishes – another superb effort. The Council is committed to increasing participation in competitive sport, and these talented youngsters are a fine example of what can be achieved.

It bodes well for the future of sport in our borough.“