An experienced 10-member New Zealand team was chosen today for the Commonwealth Games badminton.Only two members of the side, announced by the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) and Badminton New Zealand, are without previous games experience.
Men's doubles player John Gordon and women's doubles and mixed doubles player Sara Runesten Petersen
will make their games debut in Manchester in July.
Gordon, from the Waitakere association, has been a member of the national squad since 1999.Runesten Petersen has been a member of the national squad for two years and won the mixed doubles title at the recent Oceania Championships.
She reached the last 16 of the mixed event at the world championships in Spain last year.New Zealand Olympic Committee Secretary General Barry Maister is impressed by the team.
"There is certainly plenty of experience in this New Zealand team and results in recent months have shown that the personnel selected have the potential to perform to a very high standard in Manchester," he said.
The other four members of the men's team, Geoff Bellingham, Nick Hall, Chris Blair and Daniel Shirley, won bronze in the team event at Kuala Lumpur.
Bellingham and Hall will line up in the singles.Bellingham won the singles title at the Oceania Championship and was a quarterfinalist at the French Open.
Hall won a singles bronze medal at the Victoria Games in 1994 and this will be his fourth Commonwealth Games.
Rhona Robertson and Tammy Jenkins, who won a bronze medal in the women's doubles in Kuala Lumpur, will again team up in Manchester.
Robertson has been to four games, Jenkins three and both have competed at the Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996) Olympics.
Robertson also won a bronze in the singles at Victoria.The Gordon sisters, Nicole and Rebecca, return for their second games having been part of the team in Kuala Lumpur.
"This is a very experienced team and even the two who do not have games experience have had extensive competition around the world and that is important to help them combat the euphoria of playing at a Commonwealth Games," national coach Graeme Robson said.
NZ team
Men: Geoff Bellingham (Waitakere), singles, doublesChris Blair (North Harbour), doubles, Mixed doubles John Gordon (Waitakere), doubles Nick Hall (Waitakere), singles Daniel Shirley (Waitakere), doubles, mixed doubles
Women: Nicole Gordon (Auckland), singles, doubles Rebecca Gordon (Auckland) singles Tammy Jenkins (North Harbour) doubles, mixed doubles Rhona Robertson (Auckland), singles, doubles Sara Runesten Petersen (North Harbour) doubles, mixed doubles.
- NZPA
