American Wins Nth Island Champs - Badminton

New Zealand’s loss is Americas gain as the winner of the men’s singles title at the North Island Badminton Championships, Bjorn Seguin who has been domiciled in the Waikato over the past few years and had been trying to qualify to play for New Zealand in badminton but nothing had come of it and he now plays under the USA flag.

Seguin who recently turned 21 had hoped to play for his adopted nation, but after representative problems he now plays for the United States, the country of his birth. He won the men’s singles at the North Island Championships in Hamilton with a straight game victory over Waitakere’s Luke Charlesworth 21-9 21-12. The remainder of the titles were shared around the country. Southland’s Anna Rankin a New Zealand Commonwealth Games team member won the women’s singles over local player Madeleine Stapleton in straight games.

The closest of the finals was the men’s doubles where the pairing of Oliver Leydon-Davis(Waikato) and James Eunson(Southland) defeated fellow New Zealand reps Kevin Dennerly Minturn and Henry Tam from Auckland 21-18 in the third game.

The Auckland team of Emma Chapple and Stephanie Cheng won the women’s doubles defeating Brown and Stapleton in straight games while The Waikato duo of national coach TJ Weistra and Susannah Leydon-Davis easily put away Tam and Carmen Yuen(Auckland) in straight games.

A number of the players from the tournament now travel to Suva for the Fiji International Futures event.

Results: North Island Badminton Championships, Hamilton.

Men’s singles semifinals:

Bjorn Seguin(USA)bt James Eunson(Waikato) 18-21 21-18 21-5, Luke Charlesworth(Waitakere) bt Sam Ho(Auckland) 21-10 21-18

Final:

Seguin bt Charlesworth 21-9 21-12

Women’s singles semifinals:

Amanda Brown(Waikato) bt Maria Masinipeni(Nth Harbour) 21-8 21-19, Anna Rankin(Southland) bt Carmen Yuen(Auckland)21-14 21-16

Final:

Rankin bt Brown 21-17 21-11

Men’s doubles semifinals:

James Eunson(Southland)/Oliver Leydon-Davis(Waikato) bt Ashraf Dhoray/Brent Miller(Auckland)26-24 17-21 21-11, Kevin Dennerly-Minturn/Henry Tam(Auckland) bt James Paterson(Waikato)/Bjorn Seguin(USA) 21-19 21-15.

Final:

Eunson/Oliver-Davis bt Dennerly-Minturn/Tam 20-22 23-21 21-18

Mixed doubles semifinals:

TJ Weistra/Susannah Leydon-Davis bt Kevin Dennerly-Minturn/Stephanie Cheng(Auckland)12-21 21-18 21-19, , Henry Tam/Carmen Yuen(Auckland) bt Oliver Leydon-Davis/Felicity Leydon-Davis(Waikato) 21-13 29-27.

Final:

Weistra/S Leydon-Davis bt Tam/Yuen 21-10 21-9.