Thirty-two London Boroughs competed against each other in the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games. The competition is split between boys and girls with the qualifying rounds played at the Redbridge Leisure Centre and the finals contested recently at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.
The 2012 boys champions, Wandsworth, slipped to third place and the top spot in 2013 was taken by Southwark who were led by Olamide Wuraola and Shaquille Webb-Dixon – supported by a vocal Abdul Wuraola! When the going got tough Southwark got going – they pushed Islington back to fourth place despite their noble effort.
The girls title was taken by Hackney. Zahna Hall was their number 1 although she succumbed to Hiba Feredj in their semi-final encounter. Enfield’s Samantha Lai and Jasmine Chan just squeezed past Sutton 3-2 as Isabelle Joubeily remained undefeated. Barnet had to settle for joint third place with Sutton. There was no play-off for 3rd/4th in the girls which left Isabelle and Hiba to battle it out another day for top honours.
Final Positions:
Boys – 1st Southwark, 2nd Brent, 3rd Wandsworth, 4th Islington, 5th Barnet, 6th Sutton
Girls – 1st Hackney, 2nd Enfield, 3rd Sutton & Barnet, 5th Brent & Harrow.
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Michael Loveder