4:30pm Tuesday 27th March 2012
Enfield's boccia team won a gold medal at the London Youth Games after defeating Barking & Dagenham in the final last week.
The team beat off rival boroughs from across London to win the popular Paralympic sport event for under-17s but it was far from an easy route to victory for the team, who had to recover from losing their first group game 4-2 to Newham to progress.
Things quickly turned around with a 3-1 win over Croydon in their second match and a 2-0 win over Greenwich in the last group game.
Even that was almost not enough as Croydon also finished with two wins but Enfield progressed by the tightest of margins, having scored one point more than their rivals.
The knock-out stages began with Enfield comfortably defeating Lambeth 6-0 to seal at a medal and the semi-final proved just as undaunting, with a 5-0 win over Camden.
Sharp captaincy from Joe Brown and excellent play from Selvee Sawmynaden proved to be the difference in the final as Enfield won 3-2 and secured maximum Jubilee Trophy points for the borough.
Enfield team manager Marion Coram-Ware said: "We are absolutely delighted, the team did all the coaches proud. We thought the games flowed very well and the tactics from the children have greatly improved from last year, so we’re chuffed to win."
Boccia is among 80 school and community competitions across 30 sports that take place across the year including five disability sports, the Thames Water Regatta on 9 June and climaxing at the finals weekend at the National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace on June 28 to July 1.
Now part of the Government’s nationwide School Games programme and supported by Sport England National Lottery funding, the London Youth Games has expanded to feature more schools events within its competition programme, to build on the record-breaking 71,000 youngsters who took part in last year’s Games.
For further information on how to compete for Enfield at the London Youth Games, please contact Borough team organiser Darrell Braiden on 020 8379 3212 or darrell.braiden@enfield.gov.uk.
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