London Youth Games

The London School Games, which runs within the 34 year old London Youth Games, welcomed more than a million young competitors this year. Indoor rowing continued its growth in popularity at the event, with more entries than last year in races ranging  from Years 7- 11 and in both individual and team relay formats. 

The Year 8 boys’ race proved to be closest of the day, with competitors rowing as far as possible in three minutes. Elijah Matthews (representing Lewisham) just managed to hold on to gold from Charlie Dearman (Walthman Forest) just two meters back, and Ben Nicholls-Mindlin (Richmond Upon Thames) in third – 5m off the gold medal.

The Year 9 boys also had some close racing, with Billy Lecomber (Havering) winning by 10m over James Parkingson (Richmond Upon Thames) and Waltham Forest’s Christakis Constantinou only 3m off a silver medal.

In contrast, many of the girls’ events were won in dominant fashion. Siobhan Samuel (representing Greenwich) in the Year 9 girls’ event and Leila Bernstein (representing Southwark) in the Year 10 girls’ event both had comfortable wins of over 30 meters from the next best competitor. 

The Year 11 girls event, held over six minutes, ended with a tough battle for the bronze medal with Antonia Thomson (Hounslow) finishing just 2m head of Emma Hatchett (Enfield) and Evie Koen (Havering), who were left out of the medals in fourth place.