Sutton topped their group in the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games Badminton qualifiers and will be one of eight boroughs fighting it out to be champions this weekend.

The qualifiers were held at the Sobell Leisure centre in Islington on Saturday 27 June with an impressive 31 boroughs entering the competition. More than 300 young badminton players fought hard for their borough in an attempt to make it to the Finals at Crystal Palace on 4 July.

Sutton’s mixed team qualified from a group containing Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Lewisham. The competitors go to a range of schools across the borough including St. Philomena’s School and Nonsuch Girls High School. The full squad was: Melissa D’sa, Anoo Ramjeeawon, Christopher Gyton, Rebecca King, Ryan Barretto, Helen Wright, Toby Fothergill and Max Northfield.

The borough played every other borough in the group in 5 categories: male singles, female singles, male doubles, female doubles and mixed doubles.

Team manager John Cross said: “The team had a lot of fun at the competition and we played well against some good opposition, We’re pleased to have made it to the next round.”

Sutton will be in a group with Merton, Barnet and Enfield in the Super 8s and will have strong hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals.