Twelve St John Youth members from the southern region travelled to Napier last month to take part in the annual competition, which tests young St John members in a range of scenarios.
The Southern Region team, which was chosen from 40 youths who went to the regional selection process, was placed third overall.
St John Southern Region youth manager John Baker said the southern region team - consisting of Rosie Whiting, of Alexandra, Nykia Miles, Danielle Riach, Alanah Harwood and Tayla Tetlow, of Mosgiel, Ayla Burgess and Thomas Hemmings, of Balclutha, Sarah Morrison, Julia Rogers, Laura Fleming and Jonathan Storm, of Dunedin, and Courtney Ladbrook, of Invercargill - performed very well.
‘‘They represented us very well. Third overall is a very good result, given we had a fairly young squad,'' he said.
‘‘We have done better in the past but this was certainly one of our best results in recent years.''
Mr Baker said both regions from the South Island performed above average at the festival.
‘‘I wouldn't want to say the South Island teams dominated the tournament but the Northern Region South Island squad won first place overall and we took third, so it was close to that.
‘‘We're going to have some very good skills to consolidate on in the coming years.''
The St John National Youth Festival will be held in Christchurch next year and will include international teams for the fist time since 2002.
‘‘For that one, a national team will be selected and hopefully we will have some southern region youth members on it.
‘‘Looking at some of the talent we have down here now, I'd say it's likely.''
