Badminton: Olympic action will cap mixed-doubles career

By DAVID LEGGAT


A nervous wait ended for New Zealand's best badminton players around midnight on Saturday.

That was when Daniel Shirley and Sara Runesten Petersen had confirmation of what they suspected for the previous week: they had cracked the world top 16 for mixed doubles and were in the field for the Athens Olympics in August.

They still require the final tick from the New Zealand Olympic Committee, which should be no more than a rubber stamp.

By winning the Oceania championships title at Waitakere eight days ago, they all but guaranteed a ticket to Greece. And for the pair once ranked sixth in the world it means about 10 weeks' intensive preparation, once Shirley returns from the Thomas Cup teams event in Jakarta and Runesten Petersen gets back from a short holiday in her native Denmark.

The pair have been together almost four years, from the time they were pitched in as a combination for the 2001 world championships in Seville. They won all their teams events and both realised they had the makings of a team which could click.

They came from different backgrounds.

Shirley dabbled in tennis and soccer until his early teens but, given a family connection with badminton that includes five past national representatives dating back to his grandmother, his sporting destiny was probably mapped out in the cradle.

Runesten Petersen's sporting genes stem more from father Poul, who was proficient at handball and soccer in Denmark, making national under-18 teams in both, while mother Susanne played badminton as a hobby rather than with any serious intentions.

In contrast, once Runesten Petersen focused on badminton, she was very serious indeed about it. Swimming, horse riding and tennis all went by the wayside.

She came to New Zealand in 1995, in part to advance her love of languages. "I'd always been fascinated by the other end of the world. My parents had talked about moving to Australia for job opportunities.

"A friend knew some of the New Zealand badminton players and the Danish national coach arranged for me to play for Waitakere in the Wisden Cup [national teams championship]."

She returned home for two years before coming back permanently in 2000, a business languages degree in her pocket.

Shirley has completed a bachelor of commerce degree in accounting, but neither player is working as they focus on their sporting, rather than career goals, this year.

They won a bronze at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 and knew they could crack the Olympic field. So who calls the shots on court? Who's in charge if it comes to a split decision?

"There's no boss on court," Runesten Petersen said. "You can't have that. You have a plan and we tell each other if we're going off track, but it's never a matter of telling each other off. We get along really well. We don't argue on court. If we didn't get on on court then our game could fall to pieces."

Both were good singles players, but had to make a choice at a relatively young age. For Shirley it was when he was 18.

"I think at that stage I was probably a little better at doubles and it was so difficult to become a top singles player. That's what I thought at the time. Looking back, I think if I'd have chosen singles I could have been good."

It's too late to change his mind now, Shirley reckons.

"They are quite different games, the movement is different, the shots are different. It would take at least a couple of years [to be really competitive]."

Runesten Petersen's reason for choosing doubles was simpler.

"Singles is physically very demanding but I found it boring to play. It's not as fast as doubles or mixed doubles."

Both players insist there are two combinations - world No 1 Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Kim of Korea and No 2-ranked Chinese pair Zhang Jun and Gao Ling - who are a mile ahead of the rest of the 19-strong Olympic field. But there is not much to separate the remainder.

"We have beaten the world No 8 and 9 and there's a lot of pairs we would say on paper we could definitely beat them," Runesten Petersen said.

Shirley pointed out that while the New Zealand pair had to put up with a succession of difficult first-round draws during the latter part of the year-long Olympic qualifying period, Australian rivals Travis Denny and Kate Wilson-Smith - whom the New Zealanders have beaten in eight of their last nine meetings - had easier opening-round draws and qualified for Athens earlier.

"We've actually done quite well against the seeded pairs and that gives us a little bit of confidence," Shirley said. "We've played the best we have played at the moment and in the last few weeks, and we can still get better."

There is another word both players use: respect. They didn't have it for some time, in part because New Zealand is hardly a superpower in badminton.

Now there is an awareness of who they are and what their capabilities are. They are on the radar.

Shirley takes a lot of satisfaction from that because the pair have done that through their own efforts. Money doesn't fall off trees for them, but they have realised their ambition through sheer determination.

So what about an Olympic ambition? Runesten Petersen, the more forthright of the talented duo, reckons the quarter-finals are within reach.

JUST THE FACTS

Sara Runesten Petersen

* Born: May 8, 1975, Naerum, near Copenhagen.

* Degree: Bachelor of business languages, English and Italian, and International Marketing.

* Titles: European and Danish under-18 mixed doubles champion; three NZ national titles.

* Honours: Commonwealth Games women's doubles silver with Nicole Gordon, bronze with Shirley in mixed doubles, bronze in teams event, Manchester, 2002.

* Did you know: First came to New Zealand in 1995 and moved permanently in 2000.

Daniel Shirley

* Born: April 13, 1979.

* Secondary education: Auckland Grammar School.

* Degree: Bachelor of commerce (Auckland University).

* Titles: seven national titles.

* Honours: Commonwealth Games mixed doubles bronze with Sara Runesten Petersen, and teams event bronze, Manchester, 2002.

* Did you know: Parents Paul and Lyn Shirley represented NZ, as did grandmother Val Gow and aunt and uncle Alison Sinton and Steve Wilson.