Table tennis squad progress in London Youth Games
Tower Hamlets youngsters will be going for table-tennis gold at the London Youth Games finals at Crystal Palace next month after a fine display in qualifying.
The boys’ team finished top of their group at Redbridge Sport & Leisure, after beating Wandsworth (5-0) and Ealing (4-1) to book a place in the last eight to the delight of manager Simon Hoang.
The team included Morpeth School trio Murhad Hussain, Antony Lynch and Jamie Dignum and Hoang said: “It’s a very good achievement and we are looking forward to playing the finals.
“We wouldn’t enter if we were not going for the first spot.”
The borough’s badminton squad missed out on a place at Crystal Palace after finishing second in their qualifying group.
Tower Hamlets beat Haringey (4-1), but lost 3-2 to Wandsworth, who claimed one of the quarter-final spots.
The borough fielded teams in both the boys’ and girls’ hockey qualifiers, but missed out on the top 12 places.
The boys beat Westminster (2-1) and were handed the points from their scheduled match with Havering.
But they slipped to slender defeats against Wandsworth (1-0), Lewisham (2-0) and Kingston (3-0) to finish fourth in their group and in a share of 13th place.
Tower Hamlets’ girls battled to a goalless stalemate with their Kingston rivals and a 1-1 draw with Waltham Forest, but fell to a 1-0 defeat against Hillingdon and were also beaten by Bromley (2-0) and Wandsworth (3-0).
Borough youngsters were also in action in the junior tennis event, but lost to Newham and Hackney.
*The London Youth Games is Europe’s largest annual youth sports event and is driving the legacy for increased participation in competitive sport and volunteering for young Londoners.
A record 126,897 youngsters took part in the record-breaking 2014 Games, taking the event to more than one million participants since it was launched in 1977.
To find out more about the competing or volunteering at London Youth Games, visit londonyouthgames.org or follow @ldnyouthgames on Twitter.
*Tower Hamlets’ Alex Scott – a London Youth Games alumni – won her 125th cap as England’s women beat Mexico 2-1 at the World Cup in Canada on Saturday.
England were due to take on Colombia last night (Wednesday).
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