YOUNGSTERS from all over the county took part in the annual Youth Games Festival in scorching conditions at Bury St Edmunds yesterday.The event, in its seventh year, was the biggest yet with more than 1,000 young athletes aged between eight and 14 proudly representing the seven Suffolk districts in a variety of sports.

YOUNGSTERS from all over the county took part in the annual Youth Games Festival in scorching conditions at Bury St Edmunds yesterday.

The event, in its seventh year, was the biggest yet with more than 1,000 young athletes aged between eight and 14 proudly representing the seven Suffolk districts in a variety of sports. Waveney won the event, with Ipswich runners-up. Ipswich and Mid Suffolk were jointly awarded the Fair Play Trophy.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre, as well as the King Edward and Culford Schools, combined to host another extremely successful year for the ever-growing event.

There was a real festival atmosphere throughout the entire day as competitors from each district moved about the venues in their distinctly-coloured team T-shirts among entertainers such as jugglers and unicyclists. Event manager Tracy Brownlow said: “This event aims at encouraging more young people to get involved in sport by giving those who have not competed at regional or international level the chance to take part in a competitive format.”

There were also a number of demonstrations of less mainstream sports across the venue such as karate, table tennis and boccia, a sport similar to boules or petanque.

Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks, patron of the Youth Games, said: “It's a very inclusive day, a totally delightful one, and one that I am incredibly proud to be patron of. I would like to make special tribute to Tracy Brownlow and Terry McEntee, who put in an immense amount of work for Suffolk Sport, and without them this wouldn't be possible.

“Who knows, with only six years to go until the London 2012 Olympics, this is another way for us to encourage young sporting stars in the county to work hard towards that.”