Badminton: NZ pairing poised to pack their bags for Athens

By DAVID LEGGAT

One of the first things Sara Runesten Petersen did yesterday after all but confirming a trip to the Athens Olympics was to phone her mother.

Nothing unusual in that, except mother Susanne lives just outside Copenhagen, where it was 3am local time. Still ...

"She was ecstatic, really happy. I woke her up, but she told me to ring after the game," a delighted Runesten Petersen said after she and partner Dan Shirley won the Oceania championship mixed doubles final at Waitakere yesterday.

The straight-game win over Australians Travis Denny and Kate Wilson-Smith, 15-2 15-10, is expected to push the New Zealand combination into 16th spot on world rankings and confirm a trip to Athens.

The final standings after the year-long qualifying process are due on Thursday.

From there all that is required is the official nod from the New Zealand Olympic Committee. Having done what was asked of them, it should be a formality.

The pair were world No 6 a couple of years ago, and won a bronze at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

But a combination of factors - an injury to Shirley, the geographical difficulty of not playing as many tournaments as they would have wanted and the fact that all the world's best combinations turn out in all events in Olympic qualifying year - had dropped them to the outside edge of the top 16.

Their opponents yesterday, with more qualifying points in the bank, had made sure of their Olympic places just by reaching the semifinals, but the final reinforced the belief that Waitakere pair Shirley and Runesten Petersen have their measure.

They had beaten the Denny and Wilson-Smith combination in seven of their last eight meetings, most recently clipping them 15-2 15-5 in the transtasman test at the Oceania championships last Thursday.

Yesterday the New Zealanders roared through the first game like a train, taking just five minutes.

But the Australians found their feet in the second game, led for the first time in the match 3-2 and it was tight through the middle stages.

However 8-all became 14-8 and, after squandering a couple of match points, the title was clinched when Denny returned a serve wide.

In truth, lefthander Shirley and Runesten Petersen always appeared to have the contest in hand, but there was the occasional wobble.

"We were confident yes, but there were still a bit of butterflies," 28-year-old Runesten Petersen, three years older than her partner, said.

"In the second set we knew we were close to our goal.

"It was a matter of keeping the pace on, keeping confident and playing our game and we'd get there."

Runesten Petersen will take a short holiday back to Denmark while Shirley departs for Jakarta tomorrow with the New Zealand men's team for the Thomas Cup, starting on May 7.

They will spend several weeks in Europe preparing for the Olympics.

Australians won the Oceania singles titles yesterday. Lenny Tjoe withstood a gritty second-game fightback from New Zealand's Geoff Bellingham - who turned an 11-2 deficit into 11-8 to give himself a chance - to win the men's final 15-10 15-9.

It was the unseeded Tjoe's first tournament for Australia.

World No 34 Lenny Permana beat New Zealand's leading women's singles exponent, Rebecca Gordon, world No 83, 11-5 11-8 in another transtasman battle.

Shirley and Runesten Petersen picked up their second titles of the day in the doubles.

Shirley combined with John Gordon to win 15-11 17-15 over Bellingham and Craig Cooper, while Runesten Petersen and Nicole Gordon beat Wilson-Smith and Jane Crabtree in three games.

* The Thomas Cup team are grouped with Korea and Germany in Jakarta.

Korea, one of the world badminton's superpowers, will be out of their reach, but there are hopes they can at least match Germany.

A top two finish in the pool will advance New Zealand into the knockout round of the 12-nation tournament.

The New Zealand team is Shirley, Bellingham and Gordon of Waitakere, Cooper of Auckland and John Moody from North Harbour.