Gold Silver and Silver for Hackney at the Youth Games

5th of July 2014 - the Tour de France starts in Yorkshire - meanwhile down at Crystal Palace true cyclists and cycling fans were getting on with the business at The London Youth Games. Representing the London Borough of Hackney we had a whole host of CCH youth riders and wearing his East London Velo  colours we had Theo Modell.

Isaac went off first then hightailed it down to the swimming pool to represent Hackney there too - someone should have told him it wasn't a triathlon...

 In the under 16 section we had Isaac Costley , Frank Moore, Molly Lloyd  and Theo - all under 14s. The wet weather meant that the course was extremely slippery and the organisers decided to shorten it to take out the dangerous bottom corners - this meant the riders did just under 1km instead of the expected 6.5km so it was a short sharp effort for all.

Frank on his way to a great time

 After our first  riders had went through at 1.35  for Isaac and 1.32 for Frank it was looking good and Molly continued this with a !.44 and Theo topped it off with a 1.29 - all great times that put Hackney into 2nd place after the U16s had finished.

Molly with the Hackney support crew roaring her up the hill

 The slippery course and intermittent rain meant for some cagey riding round the corners but it looked like it might dry up in the afternoon.

Theo powering into the top straight

The team practise their weight lifting skills at lunch time

Mack finishing first in the Youth Cs

Next up were the Youth C D E riders with some boroughs fielding some very young riders mack started off with a very good 1min 58 secs.

Charlie on her way to joint top time for Youth C category

Charlie then came flying through with one of the fastest times for the under 12  group at 1.41, closely followed by Euan on 1.45.

Euan crossing the finish line

 Last rider out for Hackney was Kai who finished in 1.43 and then it wa s nervous wait whilst all the others finished and the judges totted up the scores.

Kai on the 180 bend

 The heavens opened and it really poured down meaning the boys and girls circuit races were cancelled for safety concerns so we all awaited the results -

Frank and Molly with the silver medals for Youth A/B category

Silver for the under 16s -followed by gold for the under 12s -

Charlie Kai Mack  and Euan with the gold medals for Youth C D E category

 - and silver overall - only missing out by 5 seconds to Richmond - well done to all the riders supporters and helpers - hopefully the tent will dry out in time for tomorrow.

2nd place overall team - LBHackney

Following message from LB HAckney -

Good Afternoon all,

At the weekend we had the last competitions of the London Youth Games 2014.

Over 5000 young people trained towards final selection to represent the London Borough of Hackney, with 550 actually going onto compete for the Borough against the other 32 London boroughs in the London Youth Games 2014. Hackney was represented by 47 teams across 31 sports since November 2013, culminating in the finals weekend at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in July.

The Borough of Hackney recorded its highest overall result in the 33 year history of the Games and maintained the borough’s high standards of finishing in with the elite sporting borough’s of London by finishing 6^th in London, with 34 teams finishing in the top twenty, 22 of which finishing in the top ten. Accumulating 11 team medals and 46 individual medals.

There were team medals for the Girls Table Tennis, girls handball, boys athletics, cycling, girls football, indoor rowing, BMX, disability tennis, tennis, cycling and adapted rowing teams with 46 individual medals across disability athletics, Kayak sprint, diving, sailing, rowing, judo, disability swimming, indoor rowing, football, adapted indoor rowing, athletics, BMX, cycling, sailing.

Hackney also recorded the highest in the Games history for 4^th in the regatta and 9^th in the disability in London. Along with these we also won the most improved borough in the Games. Full results for each competition can be found under “sports” onhttp://www.londonyouthgames.org/default.asp#

Please find attached the complete results table along with the list of medallist.

I would like to thank you all for the unwavering support to the cause and amazing hard work you repeatedly demonstrate towards supporting the young people of Hackney to achieve their potential. Because of you these young people are now showing what we have always known that Hackney has talent and dedication across its young people, team managers and its coaches. Thank you for going the extra mile, I realise sometimes it can be a hard slog with little thanks, but be assured Hackney thanks you and most of all I do.

When it comes to sport, Hackney no longer make up the numbers in London we are now the ones to beat!

Thank you all.

Kind Regards

Lynn Humphrey

Leisure & Physical Activity Coordinator