The World Seniors Championships are held every two years and are run by the World Badminton Federation.
Qualification and selection to represent England are based upon a series of Gold, Silver and Bronze tournaments held during the season. Each country is able to send 4/4 singles players, 4/4 open doubles pairs and 4 mixed pairs from each five year age group ranging from 35+ to 80+.
This year the tournament was held in Pattaya Thailand from 7th – 14th September. There were 1,628 competitors from 53 countries.
I was fortunate to be selected for all 3 disciplines having reached the semi-finals in the All England Seniors Singles and winning the National and All England titles in the Mixed Doubles 75+ age group.
The tournament matches were played on 16 courts all overseen by a total of 64 umpires, service and line judges as well as each court being televised live on You Tube and other media.There were 8 practice courts and 6 warm-up courts. Free refreshments were consistently available as were the constant welcome availability of bottles of water.
Coachloads of schoolchildren were present each day swelling the already impressive numbers of spectators. It was a huge stadium and incredibly well organised event.
I won the Silver Medal with Ed Hayes from Leicestershire in the +75 Open Doubles and the Silver Medal with Jan Hewett from Yorkshire in the Mixed Doubles +75, neither of whom were previous partners, so very pleased with our success.
I have won 7 silver medals in previous World Championships and 1 Gold as well as several Bronze.
Sadly, my regular Mens Doubles partner from Essex died in March and the whole senior badminton circuit miss him greatly.
Next year’s European Championships are currently scheduled for Spain and the World Championships for 2027 in Australia.
