London Youth Games 2008

[kieran]

Instead of doing the club run on Saturday morning this weekend I headed down to Crystal palace sports centre as my son was taking part in the 2008 London Youth Games. He was going to represent the London borough of Lewisham in a ‘time trial’.

The time trial was taking place using the usual Tuesday night circuit, but the start line for the first lap was by the triangle of grass pointing down the hill to give a better start, the finish/lap line was in the usual place.

First up were the Seniors, I think up to 18 years but most were younger than that, I think you might still have to be in school. They had to do 4 laps – which due to the start line equals about 3.75 laps of the circuit (as the flat U-bend was cut from the first lap). The individual winner did the four laps in 8min on the dot for Greenwich, which is about 2 mins a lap, an amazing time given his age and that it was raining at the time!! (No, they didn’t stop the event, just warned the children to go slow around the bends). Lewisham had 4 riders (as did most boroughs - the best 3 times were then added to get an overall score). Our best time was 8m19s (3rd best overall – by Alec, who also rides for VCL), then 8m21s (5th best overall, by Taylor, who rides for DeVers) and 10m12s (for a 13year old racing about his category – Kieran, also a member of VCL) so Lewisham senior team won overall with the best combined time!

The junior event (for which my son was racing) was up next, luckily the rain had stopped and the track was drying up fast. Here Lewisham came 13th overall – which was very good as the oldest on the team was 11years, with everyone else 10 years old, so were racing against mainly older children (up to 15years) and three of them, including Oisin, did it on MTBs with off-road tyres. The juniors had to do 2 laps of the course; Oisin did his in 5m38s, with which he was very happy, second in his team, first being Stan (member of Herne Hill Youth Cycling Club – who did his in 4m59.7s).

Overall Lewisham came 3rd – when combining the senior and junior scores – so all very happy. A great day and the children really loved it. Everyone was cheered on.

Herne Hill Youth Club and VCL supplied a lot of riders for Southwark, Lewisham and Lambeth. Hillingdon Slipstreamers had very good junior riders, some Lee Valley riders and Sutton CC also, plus a few other cycling clubs. Other boroughs had no cycling club members, with all on MTBs or even sharing a bike between team members so very mixed field, one single speed, and a few bmxs as well, but it was clear at the finish line that all taking part did their best as everyone looked very tired crossing the line.

Croydon and Barnet were the only boroughs not to send a cycling team.

Dulwich Paragon were there, helping out and manning the time keeping (which was very impressive- live updates with lap times and overall times), and handing out ‘business’ cards (Marco take note for next year!).

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote]Croydon and Barnet were the only boroughs not to send a cycling team.