NZ Badminton Age Group Championships Review

8 October 2014

For immediate release from Badminton New Zealand, for further information visit www.badminton.org.nz

BADMINTON AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS REVIEW

New Zealand’s next generation of badminton stars have been strutting their stuff at various age group national championships in recent days and will continue to do so as the U15 and U19 individual titles go on the line in Invercargill and Canterbury.

Here is a review of the U17, U13, U15 and U19 Championships, noting that the U13 Championships were individual only, all other tournaments are both team and individual competitions.

AUCKLAND CROSSES BRIDGE TO DOMINATE U17 CHAMPIONSHIPS
North Harbour hosted the New Zealand U17 Inter-Association and Individual National Championships this past week at the North Harbour Badminton Hall at Forrest Hill.

Hell Pizza Auckland proved a dominant force throughout the 3 days to win the title, dropping just 10 matches across the 5 ties (80 matches in total). Pop’n’Good Popcorn Waikato finished runner up ahead of the host RJ Physio North Harbour association.

In the individual competitions it was a most impressive few days for 14 year old Oscar Guo (North Harbour) who took out the boy’s singles title. The win wraps up a most impressive year for Guo, on the back of winning the Australasian U17 title back in April and being a member of the Westlake Boys High School team that took out the New Zealand Secondary Schools title.

Ben Hillier (Auckland) came away with two titles to go with the team effort, taking out the boy’s doubles with Alex Qu (Auckland) and the mixed doubles with Sally Fu (Auckland).

In the Girls Fu (Auckland) was even more impressive, picking up the girl’s singles, girl’s doubles and mixed titles. Incredibly these are the first national titles for Sally after previously being a runner-up on multiple occasions. They surely will not be the last for this talented young player.

New Zealand U17 Inter-Association Championships
North Harbour
Individual Winners
Boy’s singles - Oscar Guo (NH)
Girl’s singles - Sally Fu (AK)
Boy’s doubles - Ben Hillier/Alex Qu (AK)
Girls’ doubles - Sally Fu (AK)/Christine Zhang (WTK)
Mixed - Ben Hillier/Sally Fu (AK)

U17 Team Results
1st Hell Pizza Auckland
2nd Pop n Good Popcorn Waikato
3rd RJ Physio North Harbour
4th Manawatu
5th Waitakere
6th Balmoral Lodge Southland
7th Canterbury
8th BOP
9th Li-Ning Northland 1
10th Counties Manukau
11th Li-Ning Northland 2

For complete results CLICK HERE

U13 CHAMPIONSHIPS HELD IN INVERCARGILL
Invercargill at the same time hosted the Community Trust of Southland New Zealand U13 National Championships, with just the individual titles on the line. Nelson Zhang (Waitakere) led a northern dominance, winning the boy’s singles and pairing with Elvina Liu (Auckland) to take the mixed doubles while Srijan Konchada (Waitakere) and Samuel Sun (North Harbour) won the doubles.

Rachel Li (Auckland) won the the girl’s singles while Liu made it a double when pairing up with Shaunna Li (North Harbour) to win the girl’s doubles.

Community Trust of Southland National U13 Championships
Invercargill
Individual Winners
Boy’s singles - Nelson Zhang - (WTK)
Girl’s singles - Rachel Li - (AK)
Boy’s doubles - Srijan Konchada (WTK)/Samuel Sun (NH)
Girl’s doubles - Shaunna Li (NH)/Elvina Liu (AK)
Mixed doubles- Nelson Zhang (WTK)/Elvina Liu (AK)

HARBOUR DOMINATES U15 TEAM EVENT
It was the Northerners who dominated again at the U15 tournament, despite the travel to Southland to compete. RJ Physio North Harbour came out on top, finishing ahead of Auckland 1 and Auckland 2 with the South Island teams left to fill the rest of the order in the 8 team competition.

One of the keys for North Harbour was the inclusion of U17 winner Oscar Guo. After winning the U17 title at one end of the country and then travelling to Invercargill, Guo was rested for all but the final round against Auckland but his presence certainly made a difference as the result from the North Island champs was reversed with Harbour getting the big one ahead of their cross town rivals.

The work doesn’t end there for Guo though, he will stay on in Invercargill now for the U15 Nationals, chasing a rare trifecta of titles in just over a week of play.

National U15 Inter-Association Championships
Invercargill
Team Results
1st - RJ Physio North Harbour
2nd - Auckland 1
3rd - Auckland 2
4th - Canterbury
5th - Homestead Villa Southland 1
6th - Cranserco Otago
7th - Kelvin Hotel Southland 2

Full results CLICK HERE
HARBOUR ADDS U19 TITLE TO THEIR KIT BAG
Canterbury played host to the Lion Foundation NZ U19 Inter-Association Championships which finished last night, leaving the individual U19 and individual U15 (in Invercargill) titles to be decided over the next few days.

Once again it was RJ Physio North Harbour who came out on top, confirming their domination of age group badminton having already won the U15 title and finishing third in the U17 championships, as well as providing a number of individual titles across all age groups.

Auckland 1 finished runner-up in another show of dominance from the northern associations with Wellington North claiming third.

Lion Foundation National U19 Inter-Association Championships
Team Results

1st -RJ Physio North Harbour
2nd - Auckland 1
3rd - Wellington North
4th - Bay of Plenty
5th - Auckland 2
6th - Cranserco Otago
7th - Canterbury
8th - Ascot Park Hotel Southland

For full results CLICK HERE

Individual played through until Friday

Complete NZ Inter-Association results 2014:
Division 1 (Wisden Cup) – Waitakere
Division 2 (Slazenger Cup) – Canterbury
Division 3 – Waikato
Under 23 – North Harbour
Under 19 – North Harbour
Under 17 – Auckland
Under 15 – North Harbour

ENDS

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