Busy Time For Badminton

It's a busy couple of weeks for Badminton around New Zealand with two events being held in Auckland. Firstly there's the 2012 New Zealand Badminton National Champs which is a tournament long established on the calendar. A few days later an exhibition type event which is called the Kiwi Cup and is a masters series tournament in its first year of being held.

2012 New Zealand Badminton National Champs

Alpers Lodge New Zealand National Championships Friday 16 - Sunday 18 March Auckland Badminton Centre, Gillies Ave

Friday 16th from 2pm, Saturday 17th from midday, Sunday 18th finals from 11am.

The majority of top players from around the country with a large draw, especially for the men's singles. Which has most of the players who recently upset Australia for a place in the world champs Thomas Cup which is the elite top 16 nations in the world to be played in China in May.

Top men's seed is Southland's James Eunson followed by Luke Charlesworth(Waikatere) and then world over 35 singles champ TJ Weistra(Waikato) who was a beaten finalist in the NZ champs last year. Women's top seed is Kiwi Commonwealth Games rep Anna Rankin from Southland.

www.badminton.org.nz
 

The Kiwi Cup Masters International Badminton Tournament

Thursday 22nd March, Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th March
10am - approx. 6pm every day at Auckland Badminton Centre, Gillies Ave.

Former world No2 Ong Eue Hock from Malaysia is taking part so are Kiwi legends Richard Purser, Phil Horne and Kerrin Harrison as well as Li Feng the former Chinese rep, now Kiwi. In total there are nearly 180 entries with players from China, Malaysia and New Zealand taking part

The tournament is in its inaugural year and is worth around $10k.