EALING’S female handball team finished third at the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games competition on Saturday at the Copper Box Arena on the Olympic Park.

They produced some impressive early form, including a 7-0 win over Camden, to book a place in the knockout stages.

Ealing then saw off the challenge of Croydon 2-0 before edging past Barking & Dagenham 3-2 in the quarter-finals.

Kingston proved too strong for them in their semi-final, losing out 4-2, which meant a rematch with Haringey for the bronze medal.

The teams had played out a 0-0 draw in the group stages and could not be separated again, leading to a penalty shootout.

In the end, it was Ealing’s keeper who secured their bronze when the shootout went to sudden death.

Team manager Melanie Chowns said: “We came here last year and we were last. There was very little expectation of our girls, but we worked so hard over the last 10 weeks to try to play handball and give everything.

“I’ve been involved with handball for nearly 40 years and that’s one of my top days!”

Chowns was GB women’s handball team manager at London 2012.

Handball is one of 31 sports in the 2015 London Youth Games, Europe’s largest annual youth sports event.

A record 126,897 young Londoners took part last year.