A 25-year age gap isn't so easily overcome in badminton.

And 43-year-old Yuichi Takasaka knows it.

The Lumby, B.C. native lost to 18-year-old Jason Carlson in the open men's singles final of the Badminton Yukon

Championships held at Porter Creek Secondary School over the weekend.

"I have all these supports on all corners of my body,” laughed Takasaka, pointing out two knee braces, "taking asperin and all that stuff.

"If I were younger, it would have been good. But I'm more than double his age. It was a really fun game. He could cover everything.

"I was really surprised that I actually won the first game, because I was just going for fun. I know that Jason is pretty good. He even trains in the Okanagan (Valley), where I live.”

Takasaka took the first game in the final before Carlson wore him down to win the last two games and the championship.

"I'm usually a bit of a slow starter, so I wasn't too worried about it during the match; but it's something that overall in my game I like to try to work on, getting a quicker start, because if you fool around and blow the first game like that, in different circumstances, eventually it's going to come back and bite you,” Carlson said.

"It was a pretty high-level match. I was pretty pumped up for it. He was playing great too, he played amazing the whole game, it was tight, and I really had to work for it.”

Both had heavy legs in the finals, they said.

"It was a pretty long match,” Carlson said. "It was after a long day of badminton, and I think I had a little bit of an advantage. I'm a fairly fit guy, and I think that's why I like singles, because I can play the fitness, and I think that's why I got him.

"It was a good, hard work out. I pride myself on being fit, but after two or three hard singles games in a row, you really feel it.”

Carlson also won gold in the open men's doubles with partner Justin Dragoman, and Takasaka won gold on Day 1 in the open mixed doubles with partner Jasmine Gordon.

Gordon won gold in the open women's doubles with her partner Leanne Gordon over silver-medal winners Shermaine Chua and Mel Acosta.

Carlson recently won silver in the senior boys singles, second in doubles and fourth in mixed doubles at a high school tournament held in Kamloops, B.C., where he is planning to represent the territory at the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games in August.

He said that competing against players from B.C. and the Northwest Territories made this year's championships more difficult – and better to play in.

Takasaka, a photographer who used to live in the Yukon, drove up to Whitehorse from his home, roughly 25-kilometres east of Vernon, to play in the tournament.

Carlson said it's nice to have Outside competition for a change.

"The competition was better than the last couple years. It was really great to have a couple more competitive guys to play against; it made it a lot tougher than usual,” he said.

"It's great to have the competitive play here once in a while.”