Badminton: Games team boasts a wealth of experience

An experienced 10-member team will represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games.

Only two members of the side 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 and August.

Gordon, from the Waitakere association, has been in the national squad since 1999.

Runesten Petersen 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.

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 championships.

Hall won a singles bronze medal at the Victoria Games in 1994. This will be his fourth Games.

Rhona Robertson and Tammy Jenkins, who won bronze in the women's doubles in Kuala Lumpur, will again team up in Manchester.

Robertson has been to four Games, Jenkins three, and both 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.

They were 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," national coach Graeme Robson said.



"That is important to help them to combat the euphoria of playing at a Commonwealth Games."

Men: Geoff Bellingham (Waitakere) singles, doubles; Chris 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