Photo supplied.
Keith Priestman with his daughter, Kelsey and wife, Patti, at the World Badminton Federation competition last month in Poland proudly represented Canada in this world class competition.
Last month, Keith Priestman joined six other senior Canadian badminton competitors in Katowice, Poland, bringing home a bronze medal in the 55-year-old Men’s Singles division in the World Badminton Federation tournament.
Keith Priestman has been playing badminton since the age of 4, when he picked up the sport with his brother at a local club in Kitchener on Saturday mornings while his father curled next door. By the age of twelve, he was playing on the Canadian national team, eventually competing in the Commonwealth games in 1982.
Keith continued to play at university, adding coaching to his skill set. Badminton even figured in his career in a marketing job in the sporting goods industry, which led him to a clinic in Peterborough where he met his wife, Patti.
In 2009, he began to compete again internationally, travelling to the World Masters Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. With more than 1,000 badminton competitors in three different levels, Keith won the Men’s Singles (45-year-old division) and picked up silver medal in Mixed Doubles.
After surgery in March, Keith made a last minute decision to participate in the tournament in Poland last month. At age 60, he had to adapt his strategy to prepare for world class competition. On the agenda: lose 30 pounds; train intelligently to avoid injury; and stay on top of tweaks and pulls through a revised training regimen and lots of massage therapy. As a serious competitor he finds it difficult to hold back, but he knows that with age his recovery time has doubled, so injury avoidance is key. Bike riding has replaced running as his main training activity, and drill sessions involve patterns with fewer sudden moves to reduce the risk of injury.
A record- setting 1509 players arrived in Poland for the tournament last month, including 74 entries in the Men’s Singles 55 age group where Keith was competing. Because of his January birthday, he is at the upper end of his age category, facing 55 year-old opponents. After setting a goal of advancing to the final four, Keith was happy to take home a bronze, leaving the gold and silver medals in the hands of younger competitors.
He’s not done yet. Keith hopes to compete at the next World Badminton Federation Seniors competition in Spain in 2021 where he moves into a higher age bracket. Equipped with some videos of potential future opponents surreptitiously recorded In Poland by his wife, Patti, he looks forward to the challenge of continuing to compete at the world level. Congratulations, Keith! KG
