The 19th World Veteran Championships has concluded at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in Las Vegas, NV.  The event began on June 18 and finished with finals for singles events on Sunday. This event has drawn nearly 5,000 players from 97 countries.  Sunday featured the singles results:    

MEN’S SINGLES

Dian David Mickael Jacobs of Indonensia took the biggest prize of the day with the Over 40 singles crown.  Jacobs was on the National Team for Indonensia, and served as coach of the Indonensian men’s team.  He later began competing in Para tournaments, and won a bronze medal at the Asian Para Games in 2010 and competed in the Summer Paralympics in London.   Jacobs advanced over Thomas Jensen of Denmark in a walk-over.  He then defeated USA’s Gao Yanjun 3-2 in the quarterfinals.  He advanced over Thomas Keinath in a walkover in the semifinals.  And he defeated USA’s Mingwei Ju 3-1 in the Final.

The winning doubles team in the Over 45 each reached the finals of singles Over 45 with Weixing Chen defeating Jorg Rosskopf 3-0.  Jorgen Persson won the over 50 title.  Yansheng Wang of Germany won the Over 55 event.  Bela Frank of Hungary won the Over 60.  Jianjiang Huang of China won the Over 65 event.  Xueyou Zhang won the Over 70.

Chang Qin Wang of the USA won the Over 75 event.  Wang defeated Buddy Reid of Australia in the semifinal and Tseng-Hsiung Chang of Taipei in the final.  The USA also fared well in the Over 80 event where Richard Hicks defeated Chong Tay in the all-American Final.  The Over 85 event went to Finland’s Kai Merimaa.  And Yongning Chen of China won the Over 90 event.

WOMEN’S SINGLES

Rita Kertal of Hungary won the Women’s Over 40 singles.  Haiyan Yang of China won the Over 45.  Fei Ming Tong of Taipei outlasted Barbara Chiu of Canada to claim the title in the Over 50 event.

USA’s Lily Yip advanced all the way to the final before falling to Jianhong Qin of China in the Over 55 event.  Fenglan Hu of China claims the Over 60 title.  China’s Yanxia Liu had a hard-fought 3-2 victory over USA’s Yan Jun Ge to win the Over 65.  Hungary’s Gizella Zacher defeated two American legends on her way to the Over 70 title – defeating Connie Sweeris in the semifinals and defeating Donna Sakai in the Final.

The Over 75, Over 80, and Over 85 events were all-Japan finals with Ikuko Nagasawa defeating Akiko Ikeda in the Over 75 and Akemi Hayashi defeating Tetsuko Harada in the Over 80 and Reiko Miyagawa defeating Yasu Watanabe in the Over 85 event.