Two disabled competitors from the Barnet Borough, swimmer Gemma Beadle and wheelchair athlete Bharat Kerai enjoyed magic moments with victories in the London Heathrow Youth Games at Crystal Palace during the weekend.
Gemma did well to overcome tough opposition and take the gold medal in the 50m backstroke for the disabled, and Bharat's determination enabled him to outspeed his opponents in the 100m wheelchair race.
Barnet Copthall's David Borella and Kathryn Berry were also gold medallists. David won the men's 50m breaststroke in smooth style, and Kathryn took the ladies' 50m breaststroke impressively.
Daniel Williams was also among the medals with a bronze in the 50m freestyle.
Borella (backstroke), David Gelb (breaststroke), Nick Chaviaris (butterfly) and Williams (freestyle) teamed up to take the silver medal for Barnet in the men's 4 X 50m medley relay.
This spectacular is the largest youth sporting event in Europe, attracting 20,000 youngsters from the 33 boroughs across the capital. Sadly, torrential rain fell for much of the two days, but although it soaked the kids, it did not quell their enthusiasm.
So intense was the rain on Sunday afternoon that the tennis competition had to be abandoned, the only casualty among the 35 events, as the courts became too dangerous.
Barnet's four competitors, Natalie Neri, Samantha Cohen, Lawrence Stevens and Michael Otes, had all progressed from the preliminaries to the finals, giving the borough the highest points tally and top spot.
There were silver medals for Barnet's fencing and female tennis squads.
The senior fencers, world ranked junior Ben Montagu, Alex Vicefield and James Lau were top, and the juniors, Richard Kruse, Carlo Poggesi and Jonathan Morgan were third, giving the borough top place on aggregate.
Also runners-up were the women's table tennis team, of Aperna Narendran Srini Eseap, Donna Greenberg, Daniella Hill and her sister Lisa Hill.
Barnet's men's football team played well to take the bronze, the best achievement by the borough for several years. Their star performer was nine-goal hotshot Daniel Gibbs (St Mary's School).
Gibbs got Barnet off to a great start with a hat-trick in the 5-0 win over City of London, with Abdul Ishmail and Kondwani Nsandu also on target.
In the next match Barnet trailed Harrow 3-1 with a minute left, but snatched a 3-3 draw (Ishmail 2, James Osborne ). 2
A 3-0 win over Hackney (Gibbs 2, Ishmail) left Barnet top of their group. Victories over Havering, 5-2, (Gibbs 2, Osborne 2, Ismail) and Islington ,2-0, (Gibbs 2) took them into the semi-finals, but they were beaten 2-0 by Barking and Dagenham, the eventual winners.
BARNET: Adam Levy, Abdul Ishmail (both Ashmole). David Lovell (East Barnet). James Osborne (Finchley Catholic High). Kevin Abbe, Chris Smith (both St James). Daniel Gibbs, Kondwani Nswandu and Bevan Agyemang (all St Mary's).
Twice previous winners of the ladies' five-a-side football, Barnet took bronze this time, losing 1-0 to Wandsworth, the eventual winners, in the semi-final.
Barnet: Joy Curati, Alison Read, Beth Demery, Kate Simmonds, Claire Stevens, Mya Ozery and Amee Smith.
There was also a bronze for the squadh team, comprising Stephen Waters, Simon Shelley, Bhavin Devlia, Jason Dodd, Mark Bradley, Alison Waters, Joanna Oliviere, Tajal Shah, Sandy Tapnack and Jean Marc Bunce.
Barnet, sponsored by Kirkman and Jourdain Ltd Building Response, finished 11th out of 33, an improvement of six places on last year.
Other Barnet placings: Angling,15th. Archery,14th. Athletics (female), 25th. Athletics male 23rd. Badminton, 14th. Basketball (female), 15th. Basketball (male), 23rd.
Canoeing, 6th. Cycling (not placed). Diving10th. Gymnastics (female), 10th. Gymnastics (male), 12th. Hockey (female ), 9th. Hockey (male), Did not compete. Judo (female) 13th. Judo (male),11th. Karate (female), 8th. Karate (male),12th.
Netball 21st. Show Jumping 18th. Swimming (female),13th. Swimming(male),13th. Table tennis (Male), 5th. Trampoline13th Triathlon: no entries. Volleyball (female), 22nd. Volleyball (male), 4th. Weightlifting, 16th.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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