Croydon finished in overall fourth place out of 33 London boroughs at the London Heathrow Youth Games at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre last weekend.

After six weeks of preliminary events with over 20,000 competitors from around London, the Croydon team finished three places higher than last year, winning three gold medals, three silver and three bronze.

Croydon also collected the overall disability trophy for results in the male and female disability athletics, football and swimming.

The competitors came from the Croydon Sports Partnership RAP swimming clubs and Bensham Manor, Priory and St.Giles schools.

Pearl Sethna, Sports Development Officer (disability), said: "This excellent result has been achieved by the remarkable hard work and enthusiasm from the coaches and the P.E. teachers. In addition, the boccia, which was part of the mini-games, was won as well.''

The fourth place was gained after some incredible individual and team performances which included gold medals in disability male athletics and swimming and female tag rugby (pupils from Riddlesdown High school coached by Jon Wilder), silvers in disability female athletics, male basketball and female football and bronzes in diving, male gymnastics and lawn tennis.

Seventeen teams finished in the top five.

Team organisers, the Croydon Sports Partnership (CSP), also made awards to their best performers.

The most improved team trophy was awarded to the boy's gymnastics, who rose from 15th place last year to third, and the female disability swimming, who rose from 16th to fourth.

The tennis team were awarded the CSP achievement award for team spirit, dedication and teamwork for finishing third this year.

Team organiser Jackie Bedwell said: "I was extremely delighted with the result and my thanks goes to everybody involved.

"This includes all the competitors, team managers, parents, spectators and all those from Cultural Services who were involved in all the hard work for the months leading up to the finals weekend.''

July 17, 2002 12:30