Flying start for Team Wandsworth in London Youth Games

The London Youth Games (LYG), now in its 47th year, is Europe’s largest annual youth sports event in Europe, offering competitive and participation opportunities to over 160,000 young Londoners aged 7 to 17 across 37 sports, in 33 boroughs.

The games were set up to mark The Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and previous contestants have included Mo Farah, Raheem Sterling and Dina Asher-Smith. They take place during nine months’ of competitions across 25 sports. Heats and some finals take place throughout the year, with athletes in other sports going for a last rush of points over a July finals weekend at the Copper Box Arena.

Team Wandsworth traditionally does well in the London Youth Games and last year took the Paragames trophy. The team is supported by the council’s Sports Development team, part of the council’s commitment to help young people participate in and excel at sport.

Cabinet Member for Environment Judi Gasser said “We are always proud of Team Wandsworth, and they seemed to have got off to a great start this year. I can’t wait to see how they do as the games progress.”

Participation in the LYG is also part of the Wandsworth Moves Together strategy, aimed at breaking down barriers and making leisure and wellbeing more accessible for all residents.

Volleyball joins early successes in cross country, boys’ cricket and para boccia. The volleyball team, coached by Nikki Strachan and Alexys Archie beat Brent 25-11 to grab their place in the finals.

Wandsworth’s cross country teams were chosen through an event on Tooting Common which each primary and secondary school could attend for free. The boys’ team were the runners up in the cross country finals and the girls took gold.

In cricket, the boys team qualified for the finals in March, and the para boccia team finished third in their February finals.