{"id":1073948,"date":"2026-07-07T10:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1073948\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:59:16","slug":"croydon-claims-london-youth-games-2026-historic-double","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1073948\/","title":{"rendered":"Croydon claims London Youth Games 2026 historic double"},"content":{"rendered":"

Croydon made London Youth Games history by winning its first under-15 girls football title before adding the girls swimming championship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 200 young footballers from 21 London boroughs gathered at Jack Carter Pavilion at Redbridge Sports Centre on 14 June for the under-15s competition, with teams battling through round robin fixtures before the knockout stages in pursuit of the title.<\/p>\n

Croydon finished ahead of Southwark, who claimed silver, while Bromley secured bronze in the Under-15 Girls Football competition.<\/p>\n

Croydon<\/a> player, Lilybell Henson, said: \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the team. It was a tough start but after we got our first win, we were so happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so proud of the team to have won and it\u2019s the first time Croydon has ever won the LYG<\/a> girls football so we\u2019re making history,\u201d<\/p>\n

Henson added that football helps her get her mind off things, saying she loves the sport because it creates friendships, brings people together and makes winning competitions even more rewarding.<\/p>\n

Croydon team manager Nathan Davis praised his side\u2019s determination.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m super proud of the girls. They dug deep. They had the right motivation, and they got the win in the final, so I\u2019m really pleased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve managed to gel really well as a team, and they\u2019ve all motivated each other as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is giving recognition of girls\u2019 football and it\u2019s very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The borough\u2019s successful month had already begun on 10 June, when Croydon earned bronze in the boys parafootball competition after competing against teams from across London in the sensory-hearing and mild learning disability categories.<\/p>\n

Croydon ParaFootball team manager Callum said: \u201cThe students really enjoyed the spirit of competition and working as a team with people that are of different abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also enjoyed the medals, and it\u2019s been a brilliant event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ParaFootball competition was supported by Chaotic, a UK-based competition platform dedicated to supporting families with Special Educational Needs, with London Youth Games and Chaotic Community working together to make sport more inclusive for young people.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:Croydon\u2019s London Youth Games swimming champions (Credit: London Youth Games)<\/p>\n

Croydon\u2019s celebrations continued when the borough topped the girls swimming competition at the London Aquatics Centre.<\/p>\n

The girls were among 412 young athletes representing 27 London boroughs and competing across junior and senior freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and relay events.<\/p>\n

Croydon claimed first place overall, finishing ahead of Havering in second and Bromley in third to complete an impressive double success across two major London Youth Games competitions.<\/p>\n

The London Youth Games Foundation supports more than 10,000 young people across London each year across 37 sports, involving all 32 boroughs and the City of London.<\/p>\n

Feature image: London Youth Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Croydon made London Youth Games history by winning its first under-15 girls football title before adding the girls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1073949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,15512,393,4884,257,294365,16,15],"class_list":["post-1073948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-croydon","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-london-youth-games","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116878348627777206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1073949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}