Jim Garrett playing badminton in a red t-shirt

17 September, 2023

Jim Garrett stormed to double gold in a glittering outing at the Masters Senior World Badminton Championships in Jeonju, Korea.

The 75+ age category athlete clinched men’s doubles victory with partner Michael John Cox before adding a second title to his name alongside Mary Jenner in the mixed doubles.

But two golds were not enough for Garrett who had already sealed silver in his singles event at the Hwasan Indoor Stadium, narrowly losing out 21-18, 21-19 to Finland’s Carl-Johan Nybergh.

Badminton England enjoyed a raft of medals in the majority of age categories in Korea, with Garrett leading the way for the most accolades in the 75+ competition.

There were a total of four World titles in the top age range as Jenner claimed her second title in the women’s singles whilst Linda Coombes and Jan Hewett took the women’s doubles by storm.

Hewett also walked away with silver alongside Ian Brothers in the mixed doubles whilst Kenneth Tantum and Susie Awcock grabbed bronze.

In the 70+ age category, Betty Bartlett swooped double gold for England.

Bartlett was made to work for her women’s singles title, falling 17-21 in the first game before roaring back to take the victory 17-21, 21-11, 21-14.

She then went on to victory in the mixed doubles alongside Peter Emptage who also enjoyed a silver in the men’s doubles with partner Graham Holt.

Super silvers came flooding in for Cathy Alexander and Sylvia Gill in the women’s doubles and Alexander and Graham Michael Robinson in the mixed doubles, whilst Sylvia Penn and Anna Bowskill teamed up for women’s doubles bronze to help England top the 70+ medal table.

Carl Jennings clinched a flurry of medals in the 50+ age category, picking up two silvers and a bronze in Korea.

The badminton star teamed up with Caroline Hale in the mixed doubles but lost out on the World title in a tense final battle against fellow Badminton England teammate Julie Bradbury and her partner Carsten Lesch from Denmark.

A strong performance in the first game saw it go 22-20 to Bradbury and Lesch before they clinched the win in the second game.

Jennings added another silver to his collection in the men’s singles, before grabbing bronze in the men’s doubles with Mark King.

Simon Gilhooly was also on the men’s singles podium with bronze after reaching the semi-finals.

England were top of the medal table in the 55+ category as Bradbury once again reached the podium.

With 50+ mixed doubles gold to her name, the shuttler added a women’s doubles bronze with Debora Miller, England’s Betty Blair also clinching bronze with partner Aileen Travers from Scotland.

Gold came for Jon Austin and Rajeev Bagga in the men’s doubles, beating Taiwan’s Liu En-hung and Tu Tung-sheng 21-16, 19-21, 21-17 in the final.

In the mixed doubles, it was a brilliant bronze sweep, with Austin and Miller and Bagga and Elizabeth Austin all making the semi-finals.

In the 60+ age category, Launa Eyles and Kerry Mullen clinched silver in the women’s doubles.

The pair stood as top seeds going into the competition, but missed out 21-7, 21-11 to Ireland’s Pamela Peard and Sian Williams in the final.

Eyles was on the podium twice in Korea, grabbing bronze with Gene Austin Joyner in the mixed doubles.

Christine Crossley enjoyed a shining silver competition with second place finishes in the 65+ women’s singles and doubles.

Crossley took the first games 21-15 in her singles final against Germany’s Heidi Bender, but was soon overcome and was made to settle for silver 21-15, 18-21, 15-21.

But her revenge soon came in the form of women’s doubles, teaming up with Anne Bridge to down Bender and her partner Marie-Luise Schulta-Jansen in their semi-final before clinching a second silver.

In the 45+ age group, Rebecca Pantaney clinched women’s singles bronze after losing out 23-21, 22-20, 21-18 to Sri Lanka’s Chandrika de Silva in her semi-final.

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