Badminton: Old hand shows how it is done

TJ Weistra took out the national badminton singles title in Auckland today. Photo / Thinkstock

He may have been 16-years older than his finals opponent but that didn't stop Waikato's TJ Weistra from taking out the national badminton singles title in Auckland, after scoring a straight games win in the final and going one better than last year.

Weistra, 36 is the 35-years-and-over world champion but had been beaten in the New Zealand singles title in three games last year to Dan Shirley. However he showed a lot of determination to defeat Waitakere player Luke Charlesworth in straight games 21-17 21-14 in 39 minutes this time.

Using his experience to good effect, the Dutch-born player who still coaches at high performance level said it was about the right tactics.

"I had to take away his attacking angles and move him around a lot. For me I might play some internationals and local tournaments, but I don't think Thomas Cup. Everyone keeps asking me about it."

At 36 there won't be any big international comeback. I just like competing and to keep feeling pretty young. As long as I am loving playing at this level I'll keep going," although Weistra was a little concerned that some of his younger and more fancied opponents weren't able to beat him.

"It would have been quite happy to have been given a good kick in the butt by some of these younger guys. They need to decide what they want to do and commit to be a full international player. It's not meant to be easy, but can be done if they remove barriers in their own minds," said Weistra who was a former professional player.

Meanwhile, Auckland junior Lilian Shih who is just 17-years-old won the women's singles title and appears to have a long future ahead of her.

She defeated Southland's Anna Rankin in three tight games in the final 21-19 9-21 21-15 in just under an hour.

Shih also made the women's doubles final but was beaten with partner, Carmen Yuen by the Auckland pair of Stephanie Cheng and Kulie Luo.

Luo picked up the mixed title with Aucklander Henry Tam who also won the men's doubles in good contest with partner Joe Wu over Ashraf Dhoray and Brent Miller.