Children from Coventry have been praised for the way they represented their city and country during the International Children’s Games in Canada.

Twenty-four youngsters aged between 11 and 15 took part in a week’s sport in Hamilton last month and impressed visitors to the event both on and off the field.

Cllr John Mutton, who accompanies the team each year, said he has received an e-mail from the leader of another country’s team praising the Coventry kids.

The message praised the team as “polite, friendly and humorous and most certainly terrific athletes.”

It went on to say “more importantly your athletes were great ambassadors of your city and country.”

On the sporting field the athletes performed well to ensure the city was represented in most of the finals. Several personal best times were achieved and two bronze medals and a gold were won.”

Cllr Mutton (Labour, Binley and Willenhall), who chairs the International Games Committee, said:

“Every year the young people representing Coventry make me feel so proud, and I want the whole city to know just how good a job these youngsters do for us.

“I’ve been privileged to accompany the Coventry team for several years and every time I get a real thrill out of seeing the opening ceremony, when our team with Coventry on the back of their tracksuits parade around the stadium behind our city’s flag.”

Children will have another chance to represent Coventry on the sports pitch as part of a Greater Warwickshire team at the Millennium Youth Games later this month.

A preliminary contest was held in eight sports to find the best in each discipline.

The Coventry team was successful in netball, athletics and girls rugby and will go on to the national finals in Southampton on 17 August.