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BWF WORLD SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2009 - England the big winners, Shadwick scores a hat-trick

Posted by Lucas Liau News 10:05 AM

England, understandably, were the biggest winners when they bagged 13 gold medals with Harry Shadwick the toast of the English team with three individual gold medals in the 65+ category of the BWF World Senior Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain.

Shadwick won gold in the men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles to cap a memorable week for him while Denmark’s former world champions Steen Fladberg-Jesper Helledie also victorious in the 55+ men’s doubles competition.

Denmark and Japan won four gold medals each while Sweden got three. However, there was no denying the English glory as they took 16 of the 70 spots in the finals.

In fact, the English won a whopping 45 medals from the 35 events with a haul of 13 gold, nine silver and 23 bronze medals. The Danes came in second with nine gold, eight silver and 16 bronze.

The biennial Championships attracted 708 players from 34 countries.

In the 65+ men’s singles, Shadwick beat Poland’s Pawel Gasz 21-18, 22-20. Shadwick went on to partner Mike Coley and Brenda Andrew to win the men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles respectively.

Shadwick-Coley edged Japan’s Eichi Hara-Kanehiro Koyama 22-20, 21-17 in the men’s doubles while the mixed doubles victory came at the expense of Denmark’s Leif V. Hansen-Elvi Hoyer 27-25, 21-11.

The Danes, however, drew some cheers when Fladberg-Helledie, who won the men’s doubles title at the 1983 World Championships in Copenhagen, beat top seeds Surapong Suharitdumrong-Taveesup Waranusast from Thailand 21-13, 20-22, 21-16 in an epic 53 minute battle.

Helledie added another gold medal to his tally when he teamed up with Israel’s Svetlana Zilberman Beliasov to win the mixed doubles title. They beat Scotland’s Dan Travers-Christine Black 19-21, 21-16, 21-18.