College sport: Rising stars clean up the badminton titles

Chance Cheng and Michelle Chan are dominating New Zealand junior badminton.

The pair won their respective under-16s titles at the national junior age-group championships in Whangarei at the weekend, adding to the under-18 titles they won last month.

Cheng, 15, from Westlake Boys defeated Howick College's Alan Chan in straight games in the boys singles and also won the boys doubles, teaming with Henry Tam.

Michelle Chan, 16, from Epsom Girls Grammar, won titles in all three under-16categories. She beat Assunta Wong (Macleans) in straight games in the singles, won the doubles with Rotorua Girls under-14s player Stevie-Maree Hurihanganui and cleaned up the mixed title with Alan Chan.

RUGBY

New Zealand secondary schools defeated Australian Schools 38-5 on the Gold Coast.

Nick Afoa of King's College scored two tries and has now left the squad to sing at the World Cup opening ceremony on Friday.

The team play Australian Schools again today.

The Auckland secondary schools girls rugby team finished the northern region tournament unbeaten with six wins from six matches. The host team scored 221 points and conceded only 18.

Auckland faced tough matches in beating Waikato by five points and Bay of Plenty by nine in the round-robin format.

Auckland's most valuable player was Karina Penetito of Tamaki College, who picked up two player-of-the-match awards during the tournament.

NETBALL

Auckland Girls Grammar succumbed to the favoured Hillcrest High School team in the final of the national secondary school netball championships last week.

The Hillcrest team, featuring new Silver Fern Laura Langman, were far too strong, winning 40-15.

Defending champions Avondale College were pipped by one point by New Plymouth Girls to finish the tournament fourth. Massey High School came fifth after thrashing Verdon College 40-16.

SOCCER

The New Zealand schools side returned home with an unbeaten record after their short tour of Australia.

The team won their key clash against the Brisbane Strikers 1-0 last week, and finished their tour with a 9-1 win over a Gold Coast under-19 representative side.

Earlier, the tourists defeated Gold Coast club Runaway Bay under-18s 7-1, then Burleigh FC 4-0 and then Gold Coast champions Tweed Valley Kings 18-0.

CURLING

The Birkenhead College girls team retained their national title with a 9-8 defeat of Maniototo Area School at the Paradice rink in Avondale.

Wakatipu won the boys final over Maniototo.

In the playoff for third and fourth, Birkenhead College boys, skipped by Natsumi Izuchi, defeated Long Bay College 7-3.

Summer sport This week the summer sports season gets under way around the Auckland region.

The senior tennis competition starts its top four playoffs involving King's, Westlake, St Kentigern and Auckland Grammar.

The top four in the girls title race are St Cuthberts, Diocesan, King's and Epsom Girls.

In senior cricket, Kelston Boys will be looking at defending their one-day title. King's were the winners of the two-day competition earlier in the year.

This week

Friday: Premier boys volleyball, various venues.

Saturday: Tennis, various venues.

Monday: Premier girls volleyball, various venues.