New Zealanders and Aussies Dominate Semi Finals

New Zealanders and Aussies Dominate Semi Finals

The Oceania Badminton Championships in Ballarat has reached the business end of the individual tournament competitions, with all semi-finalists are all from the two dominant countries in Oceania, New Zealand and Australia.

The Kiwis are represented in all events except the women’s doubles with our top pair of Madeleine Stapleton & Anna Rankin unexpectedly losing a close 3 game match to an Australian pair, going down 21-19 in the third game.

Joe Wu was pushed all the way by a fired up Wesley Caulkett in front of a vocal home crowd. Wu led 17-13 to then find himself 19-17 down however used all his experience to regroup and take the match 21-19 to progress to the semi-finals.

There was disappointment though for both Michael Fowke and Anna Rankin, both who were seeded second in their respective singles events but lost in the quarter-finals to Australian opponents.

Semi Final Preview
Joe Wu vs Jeff Tho (Aus). Jeff is unseeded in this event however has previously been Australia’s top men’s singles player

Michelle Chan plays Tara Pilven (Aus) who is seeded 3rd, a 20 year old current living and playing in Denmark.

Oliver and Kevin play 3rd seeds Matthew Chau/Sawan Serasinghe (Aus) – Australia’s second ranked MD pair, with the boys keen to set up a final against Australia’s top pair Glenn Warfe and Raymond Tam who they agonisingly lost to 21-19 in the third game in the final of the team event three days ago.

Oliver and Susannah (seeded 2nd) play Raymond Tam and Gronya Somerville (Aus) seeded 3rd, who in the earlier rounds defeated the NZ no. 2 pairing of Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and Madeleine Stapleton in three games. Australia has suffered a major blow in this event with Renuga Veeran seriously injuring her knee in the quarter-final and being forced to withdraw, thus opening up the top half of the draw as she and partner Ross Smith were seeded no. 1.

Oceania Badminton Championships
Ballarat, Australia
Quarter-finals:

Mens Singles
Joe Wu def Wesley Caulkeet (Aus) 21-16 21-23 21-19
Maika Phillips lost to Ashwant Gobinathan (Aus) 22-20 21-12
Michael Fowke lost to Luke Chong (Aus) 21-17 21-12

Womens Singles
Michelle Chan def Alice Wu (Aus) 21-11 23-21
Anna Rankin lost to Verdet Kessler (Aus) 21-16 21-8

Mens Doubles
Oliver Leydon-Davis/Kevin Dennerly-Minturn def Daniel Guda/Toby Wong (Aus) 21-8 21-10

Womens Doubles
Vicki Copeland/Anona Pak lost to Tara Pliven/Talia Saunders (Aus) 21-16 21-19
Anna Rankin/Madeleine Stapleton lost to Jacinta Joe/Louisa Ma (Aus) 20-22 21-17 21-19

Mixed Doubles
Oliver Leydon-Davis/Susannah Leydon-Davis def Joe Findlay/Louisa Ma (Aus) 21-16 21-13

Friday evening – semi-finals

Saturday – commencing 12 noon – finals
ends

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