George Hendrie (R) and James Brosnan of England Fencing at the ExCeL Centre
ENGLAND TEAMS CLEAN UP AS CURTAIN FALLS ON EXCEL COMPETITION
As the Sainsbury's 2012 School Games competitors prepare to head over to the Olympic Park for the final day of competition tomorrow, day three of the event saw the athletes wave goodbye to ExCeL London in style.
With seven sports wrapping up their competition over at ExCeL, fencer George Hendrie helped pave the way for the incoming Olympians by signing off with boys' foil gold.
With the ExCeL set to host the London 2012 fencing in just over two months' time, 17-year-old Hendrie was getting a sneak peak of the experience. After easing past England teammate James Brosnan in his semi-final, Hendrie came away with the gold thanks to a 15-8 victory over Wales' Ethan Ridsdale in the showpiece.
Hendrie admitted that he had to pinch himself after showing off his talents on the same stage that the world's best are set to grace in a matter of weeks: "It was a really good result and I'm so happy to have won gold.
"I came here to win, so I've achieved that which is great. I could have fenced a bit better on the first day, but it's the end result that counts. It's a great way to end my season too.
"It's a great feeling to know that some of the best fencers in the world will be here competing on this same stage in a few months at the Olympics and it is an unbelievable feeling to think I have won gold here, maybe in a few years I might win an Olympic gold."
England were the ones to beat at the fencing as they walked away with five of the six individual medals up for grabs, with only Scotland's Chloe Dickson stemming the flow as she collected the girls' foil title.
There was plenty for the English fans to cheer in the gymnastics too as Nile Wilson and Ellie Downie finished top of their piles with the boys and girls all-around titles.
In the table tennis England South East's boys and South West's girls took gold, while England pair Ebony Drysdale-Daley and Matthew Kavanagh claimed girls' -70kg and boys' -81kg gold's on the final day of the judo.
England Central are in contention for a volleyball double with both the boys and girls reaching the finals, while England East and England North will do battle for wheelchair basketball supremacy later this evening.
The Sainsbury's 2012 School Games cyclists left Redbridge Cycling Centre too today ahead of Wednesday's visit to the Velodrome. Para-cyclists Ryan Whatmough and Joe Widdowson picked up where they left off yesterday, collecting two more gold medals today.
Charlotte Broughton was also celebrating another crown as she added the girls' time trial medal to Monday's crit victory, while Jack King made it an East Midlands double with victory in the boys' race.
The curtain also came down at Barking Rugby Club as England London and South East overcame South West in the final to take home the rugby sevens cup, while at Old Loughtonians Hockey Club, England Under-18s dominated with a 10-0 victory over Wales.
However, all was not lost for Wales as Jordan Hart walked away with singles gold in the girls' badminton. The 17-year-old defeated England's Jessica Pugh to clinch the title and commented on her victory: "I'm over the moon, I have been training really hard for this so it is a really nice way to end a season.
"This has been the best event I have competed at and I have been to big international meets, but this is probably the best set-up I have been to so it has been a privilege to play here."
Tomorrow the focus turns to the Olympic Park where athletics takes centre stage in the Stadium, the Velodrome hosts track cycling and the swimmers occupy the Aquatics Centre.
Competitors from the other nine sports will have finished their competition and will head to the park to cheer on their peers as spectators. Up to 35,000 tickets for spectators have been allocated for the event tomorrow, with more than 400 school groups from across the country expected to travel to London to watch the action.
Backed by National Lottery funding from Sport England and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, the Sainsbury's 2012 School Games is a multi-sport event for 1,600 elite young athletes. The Games take place from 6-9 May, 2012 with the Olympic Stadium, Velodrome and Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park hosting competition on 9 May.
The Sainsbury's 2012 School Games finals event in May is one part of the wider year round School Games initiative, which uses the inspiration of London's Olympics and Paralympics to transform competitive sport in schools and get more people playing sport. Thousands of schools across the country have signed up to take part in local class versus class and school versus school competitions along with county wide sports festivals.
The Sainsbury's 2012 School Games is supported by a range of partners including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Sport England, Youth Sport Trust, Department of Health, ParalympicsGB, Sport Wales, Sport Scotland and Sport Northern Ireland.
Over £128m of Lottery and Government funding is being invested to support the School Games over the next 3 years.