Students from three Waltham Forest schools took part in the East London Final of the Panathlon Challenge for the first time last week, battling for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Park.

With 186 students from 24 schools taking part, competition was fierce, and despite winning the polybat event, Waltham Forest were beaten to a place at the Copper Box Arena final by Barking and Dagenham.

Schools competing from the borough of Waltham Forest included Whitefield, Brookfield and William.

The final was held at the University of East London SportsDock in the East London Docklands, with Newham and Hackney the other competing boroughs - all of whom have entered before.

The three teams had qualified via competition earlier in the year, either as champions in the top half of the draw or for the plate competition as runners-up from the first round.

Played over a number of events, Barking and Dagenham emerged as winners, triumphing over runners-up Newham by 50 points to 42.

Victories in the boccia, kurling and track athletics took Barking and Dagenham to the final, despite wins for Hackney in the table cricket and Newham in the field athletics.

Meanwhile in the Plate Final, Redbridge were imperious, falling just one event short of completing a clean sweep by winning five sports and coming second in the sixth to comfortably win the overall event with 58 points.

Havering came second with 44 points.

Redbridge's win means that they will join Merton and Brent in the Plate Final at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on June 18.
Seven Kings and Little Heath were the two Redbridge schools competing.

Set up in 1996, the Panathlon challenge delivers competitive sporting opportunities for disabled young people and will invest more than £250,000 in sports equipment and coaching funds across London, Essex and other areas in 2014. Over 1,500 disabled young people will be involved in London Panathlon competitions this year.