Thousands of young athletes from across the country are picking up a racket and playing competitive tennis as part of the School Games Festival this June and July.
Twelve schools from across Hertfordshire were victorious in their local partnership Year 3&4 Mini Tennis Red competition to earn their place in the School Games.
There are 46 county festivals taking place across the country over the summer of which tennis is a part of 43 and around 1,000 young people took part in nine sports at the Herts School Games Level 3 Festival.
Tennis was one of the highlights of the day with Summercroft Primary School in Bishops Stortford emerging as the winners.
Leo Tutt, Tennis Development Manager for Hertfordshire, said: “The county finals were a fantastic event with eventual winners Summercroft narrowly defeating Saffron Green Primary School in the final. Throughout the day there were some excellent matches and most importantly all 48 children thoroughly enjoyed the day and will now hopefully continue to play tennis at their school or local club. We were delighted that Lucy Boulton, member of the GB Olympic Beach Volleyball team was present and awarded the medals and trophy to the winning teams”
Paul Williams, Schools Tennis Manager at the Tennis Foundation added: “A key priority for British Tennis is to grow the base of the game and that means more young people, playing more often. Congratulations to everyone who participated at the School Games event this year and we look forward to seeing more even schools and young people taking part in the years to come.”
The School Games was created to encourage young people to play more competitive sport in school as part of plans to leave a lasting legacy from the London 2012 Olympics.
Young people taking part in the School Games will have the chance to compete in a range of Olympic and Paralympic sports with competitions progressing from school up to national levels.
For more information on the Tennis Foundation’s support for primary, special and secondary schools please visit www.schoolstennis.org