Badminton: Leading players to face Aussies

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The Sars virus has been good and bad news for Badminton New Zealand.

New Zealand's top four Olympic badminton hopes were on their way to the world championships in England in May when the tournament was called off because of the health scare.

It was then planned that Dan Shirley, John Gordon, Geoff Bellingham and Sara Runesten Petersen would return to England next month for the rescheduled championships.

But that decision has been reversed and the players will play the biennial Whyte Trophy transtasman contest late next month in Australia.

"We had thought about it for some time," said Badminton New Zealand chief executive Peter Dunne yesterday.

"While it was important in terms of Olympic ranking points, we looked at it and decided we would be better off having the players here for the Whyte Trophy as we have the chance for a record fourth straight win.

"Without these players we would have had to put out a weakened team.

"They still have plenty of tournaments they can use to get ranking points. The results of their best 10 tournaments count. We have agreed they can now go to Asia for the three tournaments in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia which were cancelled because of Sars."

The Singapore and Indonesian tournaments are in late August and the Malaysian Open is early September.

The Olympic qualifying period is from May 1 this year to April 30 next year.

With the number of tournaments being cancelled around the world in recent times, this weekend's Waikato International has attracted a large international contingent.

Players from 16 nations will contest the three-day tournament including Hong Kong's Aro Hariyanto, 10th in the world men's singles rankings.

Two ninth-ranked doubles pairings will also be in action.

Japan's top men's doubles combination, Keita Masuda and Tadashi Ohtsuka, will provide a real test for Shirley and Gordon, who at one stage last year reached sixth place on the world rankings.

The Japanese women's pairing of Shizuka Yamamoto and Seiko Yamada, also ninth in the world, will head that field in Hamilton. Their battle with New Zealand's Commonwealth Games medallists Rebecca and Nicole Gordon promises to be one of the highlights.

Regular visitors, including top Australians Stuart Brehaut and Kellie Lucas and Frenchwoman Tatiana Vattier, will also be in action.

With nearly 250 matches scheduled it will be a busy three days with the first matches to be played at 3pm on Friday. The finals are on Sunday.