A team of young disabled Croydon athletes are celebrating after being crowned Panathlon London champions last week.

The team, comprised pupils from St Giles, Priory and Riddlesdown schools, beat schools from Barking & Dagenham, Sutton and Hammersmith at the Copper Box Arena in the Olympic Park on Friday to win the mini-Paralympics.

They were among 175 disabled youngsters from 22 schools across the capital, and they were presented with their winners medals by triple-Paralympic swimming medalist Liz Johnson.

Fiona Bell, a teacher at St Giles School, said: "It's fantastic. The commitment of the team was great. You take a step back and realise what’s been here before with the Olympics and it’s quite incredible.

"Panathlon gives the opportunity to take part in competitive sport to children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to so, for most of them, this is the pinnacle of their sporting careers.”

The Croydon team put in a consistently strong performance, winning two of the day’s six events polybat and field athletics and claiming silver medals in two others to take a narrow two-point lead over Sutton into the final event, the athletics relay races, where another second place finish was enough to secure victory.

Toyin Fabusiwa, aged 15, a student at St Giles School, said: "It's amazing. I wasn't expecting it to be honest, but we got it.

"This is my last year in my school as well, so this is an amazing way to go out."

She added: "The Copper Box is just incredible. I've never been to a place like this. It's an amazing experience to be here.”