Three talented St Bede's pupils will be flying the flag for the UK when they take part in the Catholic Schools' Games this summer.

They're being held from 8th to 14th July in France and organised by FISEC, an international school sports organisation.

Representing the school are Abigail Rylance, a 16-year-old swimmer whose best events 100, 200, 400 and 800 freestyle, Eoin O'Connor, a 15-year-old swimmer whose best events are the 50, 100 freestyle and 50 fly (he recently won silver at the regional championships) and Abigail's sister Holly, 15, a runner whose best events are the 800, 1500 and 3000 metres.

FISEC’s members are national sports and school sports organisations with a Catholic 'signature' with teens aged 14 – 16 taking part in a variety of individual sports including athletics (track and field), swimming, table tennis, tennis; and team sports - basketball, futsal, handball, volleyball, soccer.

They last five days and apart from the sports programme a lot of attention is being paid to cultural and educational aspects; it features opening and closing ceremonies with cultural components, a Youth Forum, the Bazaar, a 'Theme and Slogan' for the Games and social evening for the youngsters.

Educational values are at the core of FISEC, with sports of a high level, and an important feature within the programme is its 'Circle of friendship and respect' and the Fairplay trophy which is part of each competition.

Teams from all over Europe are attending, along with competitors from Turkey, Israel and as far away as Brazil. The Games will take place in an Olympic style single venue setting with an athletes village, and the bazaar which takes place on the last day is organised to raise money for local Catholic charities in the host city.

The St Bede's trio are among the 20 swimmers and handful of runners selected from Catholic schools throughout the UK - all three have been training hard for up to 18 hours a week despite important end of year exams and GCSE's.