Badminton: New Zealanders gain Commonwealth bronze

9.30am

BOLTON - New Zealand's badminton players gained a bronze medal but missed out on a shot at Commonwealth Games gold after an upset loss to Singapore in their semifinal at the Bolton Arena on Monday.

Fifth seeds Singapore won through to play favourites England in the final of the team competition by reeling off three consecutive victories after Sara Runesten Petersen and Daniel Shirley gave second-ranked New Zealand a flying start in the mixed doubles.

Mirroring yesterday's tense 3-2 triumph over India, New Zealand dropped both singles rubbers -- but this time the doubles could not come to the rescue with the men's pairing Shirley and John Gordon losing in four sets to Ronald Susilo and Patrick Lau 7-2 1-7 7-3 7-5.

Runesten Petersen and Shirley needed just 23 minutes to see off the challenge of Jiang Yanmei and Lau 7-4 7-0 8-6 but Singapore then gained the ascendancy.

World No 21 Geoff Bellingham, who sat out yesterday, dropped the first two sets 5-7 4-7 against Ronald Susilo before fighting back to claim the third 8-6 in front of a capacity crowd of 2500.

However, Susilo, ranked 20 places below the Wellingtonian, claimed the decider 7-3 in an entertaining 38 minute clash as the stifling heat at the indoor venue took its toll.

Rebecca Gordon could not make headway against Singapore's No 1 singles player Li Li, being outgunned 0-7 0-7 in the first two sets before salvaging some respectability with a 4-7 scoreline in the third.

Gordon and Shirley were left to force a decider, but they were always on the back foot.

England progressed as expected at the expense of third seeds Scotland, winning 3-0 in the earlier semifinal. Scotland also win a bronze medal because their is no playoff.

Tracey Hallam defeated Susan Hughes 7-3 8-6 7-2 in the opening singles rubber before Colin Haughton made it two from two with a four set win over Graham Simpson 7-1 4-7 7-0 7-1.

The women's doubles combination of Gail Emms and Joanne Goode sealed the tie, overwhelming Yuan Wemyss and Sandra Watt 7-4 7-2 7-5.

Although New Zealand were seeded to reach the final, coach Graham Robson said they had predicted a tough encounter with Singapore, who beat them at last year's world championships.

"When you look back we weren't that far away," said Robson, noting the men's doubles were up 5-2 in the fourth set before dropping five straight points to surrender the tie.

The unbeaten pairing of Nicole Gordon and Sara Runesten Petersen were scheduled to play the women's doubles if they men had succeeded in drawing level.

Robson said the team was satisfied with a bronze although they had set their sights higher as they advanced through pool play.

"We set a team goal to get a medal and we are happy although there was an opportunity to go further."

He said the singles were a weakness but in terms of strengthening that discipline: "you can't just click your fingers".

"We put the best team we could out on the court."

The individual competition starts on Wednesday.

- NZPA