Some say age is just a number. Well, Israel’s 64- year old badminton player Svetlana Zilberman has proven that by winning in the mixed doubles event in round of 64 at the ongoing Badminton World Championships 2022. With the remarkable victory, she became the oldest player ever to win a match at the BWF World Championships.
Svetlana, paired with her son Misha Zilberman, entered the annals of sports history with a win over Egyptian World No. 51 pair of Doha Hany and Adham Hatem Elgamal, in the first round of Badminton World Championships 2022.
The mother-son duo won 16-21, 21-18, 21-11 against their opponents to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the tournament. After losing the first game, the Zilberman pair made a sensational comeback to win the next two games and progress to the next round of Badminton’s greatest event.
Badminton World Federation(BWF) acknowledged her extraordinary feat and posted on twitter, “#MondayMotivation, At 64 years old, Svetlana Zilberman has won her first #BWFWorldChampionships opening round match. She made her competition debut in 2009”.
Before Svetlana, the record of being the oldest player to win at BWF World Championships, was held by America’s Mathew Fogharty who had won a match in the men’s doubles division of the famous international competition in 2003.
Interestingly, Svetlana has been playing badminton for 41 years now as she had taken part in All England Open, way back in 1981. She had clinched the bronze medal in the women’s singles event at the 1986 European Badminton Championships. In her home country, she is a famous name in badminton having won the mixed doubles event 21 times in the Israeli National Badminton Championships. Pairing with her 33-year-old son Misha, she participated in mixed double events from 2005 to 2017 in the Israeli National Badminton Championships and won 12 mixed double events in a row.
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