Croukamp takes bronze in men’s doubles at championships
Croukamp was South Africa’s only representative in the competition.
The Eastern Gauteng Badminton Association (EGBA) legend Johan Croukamp won a bronze medal for South Africa during the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Senior Championships in Jeonju, Korea Republic, held from September 11 to 17.
The 74-year-old and his partner, Carl-Johan Nybergh from Finland, finished in third place in the 70+ category after falling in the semi-finals to the Japanese pair of Nobuyuki Aoyama and Seiji Yamamoto.
The match went down to the wire as both games ended in a tie but Aoyama and Yamamoto emerged victorious, taking the match 20:22 and 24:22 to qualify for the final.
The Japanese went on to win the gold medal after beating English pair Peter Emptage and Graham Holt 21:15, 14:21 and 22:20 in the final.
Earlier in the competition, Croukamp and Nybergh, who were seeded first, began their campaign with an 18:21, 22:20 and 21:16 win over Philippines pair Wattana Palapun and Pongsilpa Ritipony in the second round.
They would go on to record a 21:11 and 21:15 straight-set victory against the Indian team of Romesh Grover and Bhatan Gupta in the quarter-finals.
In the men’s singles, Croukamp was again seeded first but was beaten in the quarter-finals by Aoyama. Despite losing the first set by a point, Aoyama was lethal in the second and would eventually take the tie 23:22 and 21:11.
Croukamp had earlier grabbed easy victories, beating German Klaus Rosenkrantz 21:10 and 21:12 in the second round and easily beating Kaitharalapill Chandran 21:16 and 21:6 in round three.
The singles gold went to Malaysian Bruni Garip, who beat Aoyama 21:10 and 21:13 in the final. Croukamp was South Africa’s only representative in the competition.
