There were several major medals for English players, including a gold for Betty Bird and two silvers for Sandra Rider, at the World Veterans Championships.

Meanwhile, Wales’ Mike Marsden struck gold in the Over-40s Men’s Doubles alongside Germany’s Gregor Foerster.

The pair defeated Rizwan Abu & Srivasta Chakravathy Kasturi (IND) 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-4) to lift the title in Muscat, Oman. They are pictured above on the podium.

Bird & Marianne Blasberg of Germany won the WD85 category, while in the WS85 Blasberg beat her doubles partner 3-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7) in the semi-finals as Bird had to settle for a bronze.

Rider reached the finals of both the WS70 (Singles) and WD70 (Doubles) but could not quite get on to the top step of the podium.

In the singles, she was beaten 3-1 (11-5, 11-9, 8-11, 13-11) bt Kazuko Horino of Japan, while in the doubles, she and Hildegard Georgi (GER) lost 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 12-10) to Heesook Kang & Hongryun Kim of South Korea.

There was also a silver for Lorestas Trumpauskas in the MS50 category, losing the final 3-1 (8-11, 16-14, 11-8, 11-7) to Denmark’s Henrik Vendelbo.

Roy Norton won a silver and a bronze in the Over-80s. He and partner Carol Judson got to the final of the XD80 class, where they were defeated 3-1 (9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5) by Germany’s Dimitrije Bilic & Heidi Wunner. The bronze came in the MD80 category where, alongside Dennis Bromage of Wales, they lost in the semi-finals by a 3-2 (11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9) scoreline to Stavros Plakantonakis of Greece.

There were also several consolation medals for English players:

Gold – Elana McClements & Norma Millward (WD70); Betty Bird & Josip Martinovic (CRO) (XD80); Roy Norton (MS80).

Silver – Kevin Nicholls & Paulo Augusto Martinez (BRA) (MD50); Carol Judson & Ile Pohl (GER) (WD75); Carol Judson (WS80).