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Oceania Championships: Aussies Take Team Title Plus Four Golds

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS report is presented by YANG YANG Badminton Products and their Ontario (Canada) agents - SHAH Enterprises **

August 7, 1999 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - At the Oceania continental badminton championships that was staged at the Sleeman Sports Complex near Brisbane, Australia from July 27 to August 1, host country Australia won the team championships as well as four of the five individual competitions. On their way to the team title, the Aussies whitewashed teams from Samoa, Fiji and Ne= w Caledonia. In the final meet of the team round-robin, the Australians squeez= ed by archrivals New Zealand 3 matches to 2 to claim the championship.

In the individual competitions, the Indonesian-born Rio Suryana of Austra= lia took top honors in the men's singles event. Joining Suryana in the Aussie go= ld medal haul were Peter Blackburn and Rhonda Cator with two individual titles each as well as David Bamford and Amanda Hardy with one apiece.

Blackburn and Cator captured the mixed doubles gold medal. Blackburn and Bamford took the men's doubles title, while in the women's doubles event, Cator and Hardy finished on the top of the medals podium.

New Zealand's Rhonda Cator took the gold medal in the women's singles eve= nt to prevent the Aussie sweep.

The individual competitions were rated a two-star tournament by the International Badminton Federation and are part of the qualifying process fo= r competing in the upcoming Sydney Olympic Games in year 2000.

Following are some of the Oceania championships results:

Team Event
Round-robin July 27-28
New Zealand beat Fiji 5-0
Australia beat Samoa 5-0
Fiji beat Samoa 4-1
New Zealand beat New Caledonia 5-0
New Caledonia beat Samoa 5-0
Australia beat Fiji 5-0
New Zealand beat Samoa 5-0
Australia beat New Caledonia 5-0
New Caledonia beat Fiji 3-2
Australia beat New Zealand 3-2 (Australia wins the team event; New Zealand takes second place)

Individual Events July 29-August 1
Finals
Men's Singles - Rio Suryana (Australia) beat Geoff Bellingham (New Zealand) 15-5, 10-15, 15-6
Women's Singles - Rhona Robertson (New Zealand) beat Rayoni Head (Australia) 11-2, 11-5
Men's Doubles - David Bamford and Peter Blackburn (Australia) beat Dean Galt and Daniel Shirley (New Zealand) 15-10, 15-11
Women's Doubles - Rhonda Cator and Amanda Hardy (Australia) beat Li Feng and Tammy Jenkins (New Zealand) 15-8, 15-7
Mixed Doubles - Peter Blackburn and Rhonda Cator (Australia) beat David Bamford and Amanda Hardy (Australia) 11-15, 15-3, 15-4

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