Across all sports Team Enfield came sixth out of 22 local areas competing in the Better Club Games

A Badminton team of four retired people took first place at an event referred to as an “older person’s Olympics”.

At the Better Club Games, organised by Enfield’s leisure centres contractor GLL, Team Enfield came sixth out of 22 local areas competing. The Enfield athletes performed “brilliantly” in a total of nine sports, including swimming, walking football, netball, pickleball and short tennis.

But the standout success was Enfield’s badminton team.

Among those competing was Ashvin Gukhool. He said: “We’re absolutely over the moon to have won our first trophy. I have never been so nervous playing badminton, but we had a fantastic crowd cheering on Team Enfield and it paid off in the end.”

This year’s Better Club Games saw a record-breaking 1,000 participants compete to win the coveted winners’ title.

The main event was held earlier this month at East London’s Copper Box Arena, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Now in its 19th year – and coinciding with the International Day of the Older Person – the event continues to champion physical activity, mental wellbeing and social connection for older adults. Competitors for each team are users of the leisure centres in those areas and benefit from taking part in their chosen sports year round.

GLL’s deputy CEO Phil Donnay said: “As a charitable social enterprise and worker-owned co-op, GLL exists to improve the health of local communities – and nowhere is that clearer than at the Better Club Games.

“We’re proud to support such an inspiring day of fun, fitness and friendship.”

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