Tin-Tin Ho has followed in the footsteps of the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Linford Christie, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mo Farah by winning a prestigious London sports award.
The teenager was recognised for a superb season which included a Commonwealth Games silver medal by being awarded the Breakthrough Award at the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games Hall of Fame & Annual Awards evening.
The annual event, held this year at Madame Tussauds, recognises London Youth Games competitors past and present – 16-year-old Tin-Tin has represented her home borough of Westminster at the London Youth Games for several years.
Tin-Tin was the youngest member of Team England at the Commonwealth Games, where she won silver in the mixed doubles with partner Liam Pitchford.
She picked up her award from last year’s winner Amy Marren, a Paralympic swimmer who has won world and European gold.
Afterwards, the Paddington schoolgirl said: “The London Youth Games were the starting point for my career. I think it might have been one of my first tournaments when I was about five. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was just great. I had lots of fun and just enjoyed the sport.”
Looking back on Glasgow 2014, she said: “In the mixed doubles, we were seeded fourth and we beat the number one team in the semi-final, so that was a great experience. I had never played with Liam before, so it was a bit unexpected but we knew we could do it.”
Other members of London Youth Games Hall of Fame include football ace Ferdinand (Southwark), Tour de France winner and Olympic legend Wiggins (Westminster) and London 2012 heroes Farah (Hounslow), Gemma Gibbons (Greenwich) and David Weir (Sutton).
Paul Stimpson
September 19, 2014