Gold for Tower Hamlets youngsters in 2015 London Youth Games

Youngsters representing the East End have come away with gold from the London Youth Games.

Winning Tower Hamlets team at London Youth Games - Credit: Balfour-Beatty

Tower Hamlets won gold in the ParaGames mini swimming last Thursday with 79 points in total, including gold for their relay team, competing in Europe’s largest annual youth sports festival finals at Crystal Palace.

More honours came yesterday when Tower Hamlets won a team bronze in the Weightlifting.

“We’ve been blessed with good athletes,” team manager Rich Kite said. “I like to think I create a good environment for them to train in, but it comes down to their desire to train—they’ve done well because they want to win.”

Tower Hamlets got to 18th place overall in the Jubilee Trophy standings out of the 33 London boroughs, following eight months of competitions involving 100,000 youngsters in 31 sports.

British 100m record holder Dina Asher-Smith and Rugby World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi were among the former London Youth Games competitors who attended Finals week at Crystal Palace, sharing the lighting of the flame at Thursday’s opening ceremony.

Around 15,000 youngsters from eight to 18 competed in 19 sports in the finals, following in the footprints of Olympic champions such as Mo Farah and Christine Ohuruogu, England footballers Rio Ferdinand and Raheem Sterling and a-million others who have taken part since the first-ever London Youth Games in 1977.