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Waikato Start As Favourites For National Teams Championships

Tuesday 10 August 2010, 7:24AM

By Dave Worsley

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WAIKATO

After dominating the individual titles, winning three out of five events at
the Lion Foundation New Zealand Championships the Waikato badminton players
will be aiming to prove their worth in the prestigious provincial champs,
the Wisden and Slazenger Cups.

The mixed teams event dates back to 1934 and has generally been dominated by
Auckland and North Harbour, with Waitakere coming into contention of late
and being the defending champions.

Waikato, however have plenty of depth this year in the Wisden Cup, which
includes a number of international players turning up in the strangest
places, including former world No7, Tracey Hallam from England for the
Waikato team who are probably the favourites, despite looking for their
first ever tournament win.

They have an international flavour to their side with former national coach
and newly crowned national singles champion TJ Weistre being Dutch. Bjorn
Seguin under an American flag, but trying to be eligible for New Zealand.
Doriana Rivera Aliaga is Peruvian and that's without delving too far into
the background of the rest of the side which includes Commonwealth Games
team member Joe Wu and Oliver Leydon Davis as well.

The other five teams making up the Wisden Cup are North Harbour featuring
Scotland No1 Alistair Casey and former Kiwi No1's John Moody and Rachel
Hindley. Auckland No1 team has a strong line up in doubles and mixed with
Henry Tam and Donna Haliday from the Commonwealth Games team as well as
former national coach Li Feng. The Auckland second team is the likely side
to be demoted to Slazenger Cup.

Waitakere are the defending champions and have named former world top ranked
mixed and doubles player Dan Shirley and former Kiwi No1 Nick Hall to have
plenty of depth in the men's singles while Southland have Commonwealth Games
team member James Eunson along side powerful Maoni Huhe. The Southland
women's side have Commonwealth Games team member Anna Rankin listed, however
she will have to get over a foot injury to be a substantial force for her
side.

The Slazenger Cup teams are Wellington North, Waikato 2, North Harbour 2,
Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and Otago.

Play starts Tuesday at the Waikato Badminton Centre in Hamilton with the
finals on Saturday 14 August.

www.badminton.org.nz