Balfour Beatty London Youth Games 2009

A newly refurbished Crystal Palace was the scene of this year’s Balfour Beatty London Youth Games Karate competition. With its good facilities and central location, “The Palace” was an ideal venue for one of the most prestigious events on the Karate calendar.

History has shown that the East London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets have all had major success at the games, with these boroughs achieving winning streaks in previous years. 2009 would be another year following the form book.

Redbridge won the outright trophy for the boys’ competition; with Havering and Waltham Forest in 2^nd and 3^rd, while Havering took the girls’ competition comfortably over Redbridge; Richmond coming 3^rd.

A deserved thanks has to go to the coaches of Havering and Redbridge for their efforts leading up to the games; Marie Anonuevo, Ian Cuthbert, Richard Gregory and Trisha Jordan.

However, the congratulations and focus must be on the kids who made the event what it was. Especially considering entrants were as young as 11 years old, gutsy performances and great sportsmanship meant that the Karate competition was fiercely contested and a credit to the London Youth Games.

Students of ours who represented their boroughs were…

Barking & Dagenham      Ryan Clark

                                   Jack M^cAllister

                                   Lauren M^cAllister

Bexley                          Tyrone Briscoe

Havering                       Gina Boot

                                   Tom Cottis

                                   Luke Joslin

                                   Daniel Smart

Newham                       Bella Ursell

Redbridge                     Humza Abbas

                                   Dominik John

Tower Hamlets              Christopher Conning

                                   Mahfoozur Rahman