New Zealand Start Oceania Champs Well

New Zealand has started it’s campaign to reach the world finals of the Thomas and Uber Cup badminton competitions in emphatic fashion scoring 5-0 wins in their respective men’s and women’s matches at the Oceania Teams qualifying tournament this morning in Invercargill.

Held at Stadium Southland the men’s team easily beat New Caledonia 5-0 without dropping a game in the Thomas Cup while the women beat Fiji 5-0, also without losing a game in the Uber Cup.

With New Zealand having no official national coach at present the current Southland director of high performance coaching, Thana Arikrishnan stood in and took the reigns of both local teams. He is already looking ahead to tomorrow evenings clashes with Australia which barring any huge upsets will decide who gets the end is a trip to the world finals in Malaysia in May.

“It was a good start for the New Zealand teams. Everybody did their jobs and for the first match together of the year it was good to play this way in preparation for Australia,” says Arikrishnan.

The women’s team used Jessica Jonggowisastro in the top singles ahead of regular No1 Michelle Chan against Fiji and gave local player Anna Rankin the second singles spot with Danielle Barry at No3. In doubles Barry and Donna Haliday continued their good form as a partnership while Jonggowisastro and Chan played the second doubles.

In the men’s win over New Caledonia the only unusual aspect was the fact Kevin Dennerly-Minturn a doubles player was used in the third singles with Luke Charlesworth one of the better singles players in New Zealand not selected to travel to Invercargill at all.

Joe Wu led the side with a 21-13 21-18 win against Marc Antoine Desaymoz followed by Southland’s James Eunson taking the second singles easily. Henry Tam and Oliver Leydon-Davis were the top doubles combination.

This evening the women’s team take on New Caledonia while the men’s side face Fiji.

The Thomas and Uber Cups continue until Saturday evening with the Oceania Team Championships - Robson Shield held Sunday and Monday followed by the Oceania Championships and Oceania Junior Championships from Tuesday through Saturday 27 February.

Results:

Uber Cup (women):

New Zealand 5 Fiji 0

(New Zealand names first)

Women’s singles:

Jessica Jonggowisastro bt Andra Whiteside 21-11 21-15,

Anna Rankin bt Danielle Whiteshide 21-7 21-2,

Danielle Barry bt Gabriella Wong 21-7 21-9.

Women’s doubles

Donna Haliday/Barry bt Whiteside/Whiteside 21-6 21-7

Jonggowisastro/Michelle Chan bt Wong/Carline Bentley 21-6 21-4

Australia 5 New Caledonia 0

Thomas Cup (men)

New Zealand 5 New Caledonia 0

(New Zealand names first)

Men’s singles:

Joe Wu bt Marc Antoine Desaymoz 21-13 21-18,

James Enuson bt Fabien Kaddour 21-9 21-6,

Kevin Dennerly-Minturn bt Florian Ferrer 21-11 21-18

Men’s doubles:

Henry Tam/Oliver Leydon-Davis bt Sebastien Arias/Desaymoz 21-6 21-13,

Wu/Dennerly-Minturn bt Ferrer/Kaddour 21-13 21-11.

Australia 5 Tahiti 0