JERSEY will send 12 competitors to the third Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, in October.

There will be four representatives each from three sports, athletics, swimming and tennis, making it the biggest team the Island will have sent to the event, which is held every four years.

A meeting of the validation committee, described as ‘long and hard’ by Commonwealth Games Association of Jersey secretary Alan Cross, last night decided to fill all the 12 spaces, although only around a quarter had attained the standards set by the sports.

The Pune event, near Mumbai, will take place from 12 to 18 October and is expected to attract around 1,200 under-18 competitors from some 71 Commonwealth nations and territories.

The team consists of an athletics squad: 400m runner Gemma Dawkins (17) (pictured), high jumpers Jenna Murphy (16) and Stephen de la Haye (17), and thrower Zane Duquemin (16); swimming: the AIB Tigers quartet Tom Gallichan (15), JJ Gallichan (17), Emma Glendening (15) and Charlotte Manning (14); and tennis: Scott Clayton (14), Charlie Cohen (16), Katie Gouyette (17) and Kirsten McArthur (16).