By Chris Bailey

Though left a little frustrated after losing in the team squash final, Kingston’s Nishan Jasani insisted the borough’s players had a day to remember at the 2013 Balfour Beatty London Youth Games.

A boys’ squash team of Michael Hemmings, Jonathan Camfield, Rishi Satkunarajah and Jasani took to Crystal Palace at the weekend for the finals of Europe’s largest annual youth sports event.

London’s best young competitors battled it out in 21 different sports, which has seen the likes of Olympians Mo Farah, Christine Ohuruogu, Bradley Wiggins and Joanna Rowsell start their careers.

The boys did not go home empty-handed – securing silver after losing 2-1 to Croydon in the final – and 14-year-old Jasani believes he will take away a lot of memories.

“The support was great, my parents were in attendance and my coach is a brilliant guy,” said Jasani, who is from Tolworth.

“A lot of superstars have come to the Games in the past so it’s great to follow in their footsteps.

"I’m slightly disappointed to come away with silver having made it to the final but we weren’t expecting to come this far.”

While Kingston did not come away with any overall sporting victories at the Games, there were successes in archery and boys’ volleyball as the teams finished second and third respectively.

The borough finished joint 23rd with Newham in the overall Jubilee Trophy standings won by Wandsworth, dropping five places from last year, but there were still plenty of individual successes.

In the road cycling time trial, ten-year-old Felix Hussey battled through the pain to race to individual bronze in the under 12-classification.

“The first lap I went up the hill quite steadily to make a rhythm, but second time I broke the rhythm because my legs were filling up with lots of lactic acid,” said Hussey.

“It made me slow down a bit. My plan was to keep that rhythm and sprint in the end. But I’m not disappointed with a bronze – I’m very happy.

“This is my first time at the London Youth Games. It was amazing, the best part was taking part with everyone there.

“I’m thinking about trying to cycle professionally, but at the moment it’s for a bit of fun.”

The London Youth Games is delivering a sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics by inspiring more young Londoners to play and volunteer in sport. London’s councils including Kingston along with Balfour Beatty and Sport England support Europe’s largest annual youth sports event which has over 100k athletes competing across 85 competitions over nine months.