Badminton: Doubles delight for Ding

Northland's top junior badminton player Jack Ding made the most of home advantage to pick up a title at the Northland under-15 championships.

Ding teamed up with North Harbour's Selena Wu to win the Mixed Doubles Plate beating Chris Steeghs and Erena Calder Hawkins in the final at Whangarei recently. Ding also made it through to the quarter-finals of the singles and semifinals of the doubles.

His coach Aaron Spence said the 14-year-old was improving quickly and expected him to crack the Northland senior side next year, and play in Division Three of the interprovincial competition.

"He played in the Northland second team (in division five) this year and has beaten a few of the first team players in recent weeks, so I think he's almost ready," Spence said.

The coach said Ding was easily in the top 10 players in his age group in the country and might even be higher after recent good results.

He hasn't always got the results he's deserved in competition like at the recent North Island championships.

"He's always been pretty unlucky because he has always been seeded pretty low and he's copped seeded players pretty early in the competition," Spence said.

At the North Island Championships he met top-ranked Ben Hillier in the second round and lost 21-15, 21-16-. Hillier also won last weekend's Northland Open Championships beating North Harbour's Alan Ding in the final.

The year 10 student at Whangarei Boys High School cleaned up at last week's Northland Secondary School Boys championships, beating David Armitt in the final to defend his 2011 title.