By Jamie Holt
Croydon fell just short of defending their London Youth Games crown at the weekend as they finished runners-up.
Having gone into weekend seventh in the overall standings 129 points behind Wandsworth, victories in the boys' swimming, the boys' squash and diving, and bronze medals in the boys' hockey and girl's tag rugby, at Crystal Palace secured them second, just 18 points behind Wandsworth.
In total, they won eight events and came third in five over the nine months of competition, with 28 of the 39 teams they entered finishing in the top 10.
One of their stars of the final weekend was 13-year-old swimmer Freddie Benians, who won three medals in the pool - silver in the boys’ 50m freestyle in 26.65 seconds and gold in the 50m freestyle and 50m medley relays.
He now turns his attentions to defending the 100m freestyle title he has won for the past two years at the ASA National Championships from July 24, with his Youth Games efforts standing him in good stead.
"It’s a great feeling last weekend," he said.
"I was hoping to medal in the 50m freestyle but I wasn’t really expecting it, and it was a personal best.
"I’ve got the nationals now which is quite a big event for me and my season.
"Over the past two years I have won the 100m freestyle in my age range both times, so I want to get it for a third time, this time at U13 age."
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 Croydon 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.
Croydon medals:
GOLD:
Angling
Disability swimming boys
Disability swimming girls
Disability athletics boys
Diability athletics girls
Swimming male
Squash male
Diving
BRONZE:
Hockey male
Girls' tag rugby
Disability football girls
Judo girls
Trampolining
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