FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The 2019 Florida Senior Games presented by Humana offers several sports that can be called, “Sports for Life.”
That saying held true today at the Table Tennis competition at the Broward Table Tennis Club for the 70+ age groups.
John Shultz, of Lakeland, won a medal in his 27th consecutive Florida Senior Games Table Tennis competition dating back to 1993.
Shultz won the Men’s Singles 80-84 age group and teamed with Deane Chickering, of The Villages, to win the Men’s Doubles 80-84 age group. Chickering, who turned 85 this year, won the gold medal in the Men’s Singles 85-89 age group.
Both men use table tennis and other activities to stay active and healthy. Shultz moved to Lakeland to take advantage of the Lakeland Table Tennis Club’s weekly activities.
“I now play three times a week instead of the once a week when I lived in Inverness,” Shultz said.
He also plays at times when younger players at practicing at the Simpson Park Community Center in Lakeland to have better competition.
“Yeah, John gives those younger guys fits,” said Florida Senior Games Table Tennis Sport Director, Brad Woodington, who also lives in Lakeland. “Those guys in the club are learning new tricks from a good teacher.”
Chickering, not only plays Table Tennis in The Villages for two hours, four days a week, he has also taken up pickleball and plays up to four hours five days a week.
“I also go skiing for a month out of the year,” Chickering said.
The duo has teamed together to win Florida Senior Games Men’s Doubles gold medals six times since 2010 and have plenty of more gold medals in their sights.
“I don’t seem to be aging as quickly as a lot of people I know,” Shultz said.
After receiving her 2018 Florida Senior Games Female Athlete of the Year Award at the beginning of the day’s action, Deb Harrison, of The Villages, won the Women’s Singles 70-74 Age Group gold medal and followed up Women’s Doubles gold with Marilyn Cates and a Mixed Doubles gold with Michael Rusaw.
It was Harrison and Rusaw’s seventh Mixed Doubles gold medal since 2010. The three gold medals raised Harrison’s Table Tennis medal count to 21 since 2010. She has also won 31 Pickleball medals since 2004, but will not be competing this year due to scheduling conflicts.
The first of six days of Tennis held first serve today as Men’s and Women’s Singles began play at the Cypress Park Tennis Center. Preliminary matches were played in the men’s 60-64, 70-74, 75-79, and 80-84 age groups with championship matches beginning Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.
Three individual champions were crowned on day one as Cheng Hung took home the first gold medal of the day, winning the 85-89 men’s title with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Danny Holcomb.
Triple-sport athlete Judith Daniel, of Jacksonville Beach, won the women’s 75-79 singles title. This past Saturday, Daniel captured her first gold of the Games, winning the 75-79 division with a 27:22 finish in the 5K road race. To close out her 2019 Senior Games experience, Daniel will compete in six events at the Track and Field Championships on Sunday, December 15.
Michael DiNenna, of Palm City, took the gold in the 50-54 singles final, outlasting silver medalist Joseph Dalton in the championship match.
Day six of the 10-day competition sees the second day of the six-day Tennis championships that run through Sunday, December 15. The Golf championships tee off with the 18-hole championship, including the first day of the 36-hole competition. All events of the 2019 Florida Senior Games are free and the public is encouraged to attend.
Wednesday, December 11 – Schedule of Events
Tennis: Cypress Park Tennis Center | 8 a.m.
Golf: Jacaranda Golf Club | 8:30 a.m. (shotgun start)
The 2019 Florida Senior Games is an annual program of the Florida Sports Foundation, presented in conjunction with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.
For the latest information on the 2019 Games, visit our website: http://www.FloridaSeniorGames.com. Follow us on social media via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily images and reports highlighting the 2019 Games.
About the Florida Senior Games presented by Humana
The Florida Senior Games presented by Humana are presented annually by the Florida Sports Foundation (FSF), the state’s lead sports promotion and development organization, and a division of Enterprise Florida, Inc. The Foundation works in conjunction with a variety of local sports industry partners to present the different competitions. The Florida Senior Games, presented by Humana, an annual amateur sports tradition in Florida, is part of the state’s $57.4 billion sports industry that accounts for 580,000 jobs statewide.