The Red Deer Tennis Club are sending over a dozen players to Canada 55+ games in Kamloops after they qualified in the Alberta 55+ Summer games in June.
The games will begin on Aug. 23 with 26 competitions set to happen with over 2,500 participants.
In the 55+ games, Darrell Nichols and Greg Young won silver to qualify in men’s doubles. In mixed doubles, Glen Stock and Mona Knudslien captured gold, Ferdie Soriano and Barb Young got silver, and Alfred Poppen and Deirdre Carter-Poppen won bronze.
In 60+ mixed Nichols and Jean Ann Nichols got gold and in 65+ women doubles, Barb Young and Mona Knudslien got gold. In 70+ men Ian Hector and Ken Miller got gold, Larry Stewart and John MacDonald won silver, and Dick Huddleston and Lorne Macleod win bronze. All of these competitors have now qualified for the Canada Games.
Also in 70+ mixed Hector and Fay Boyd got gold, and in 75+mixed Judy and Gary Steen got the silver.
Hector told the Advocate the Red Deer Tennis Club had a successful weekend in June and are sending various players to play against some of the best 55+ players in the country.
“It’s really special when you get to play against people from all over the country and there’s a great sense of sportsmanship and it’s certainly competitive there’s no question about that,” Hector said.
Hector has played at the local tennis club regularly for over 10 years all year round. He’s competed in four Alberta 55+ games and this year will be his third Canada Games.
Barb Young has been competing all her life and fell in love with the sport after she traveled to England and played there.
“The games will be fun. I’m just going to go and have a good time because I don’t know what the competition will be like. We’ll just go and do our best and have fun,” she said.
Since she was a youngster she’s been playing at the Tennis Club and competed in the Alberta Summer Games in her 20s. However, years later she heard about the 55+ games and thought she’d give it a try.
“I just thought it would be fun to try something different. We had fun playing in the Alberta Games here and going to Kamloops it’s not that far away so I thought we’d give it a shot,” she added.