Badminton: Solid workout for Olympians

New Zealand badminton Olympians Dan Shirley and Sara Runesten Petersen were forced to three sets in all three of their finals at the Auckland International tournament in Auckland yesterday.

Runesten Petersen, from North Harbour, partnered Auckland's Rebecca Gordon to win the women's doubles final 15-10, 16-17, 15-4 against her former partner Nicole Gordon and former Chinese national team member Xu Li.

She then teamed with Shirley, the Waitakere player she will partner at the Olympic Games in August, to win the mixed title over Malaysians Ewe Hock Ong and Sutheaswari Mudukasan. The pair prevailed 15-11, 8-15, 15-1 in a match in which Ong ticked off his partner for a mistake.

Shirley and Runesten Petersen, ranked No 16 in the world, leave on Friday for tournaments in Asia as their Athens build-up continues.

The men's doubles produced a hotly contested final. Top seeds and former world top 15 players Shirley and John Gordon won the first set easily against second seeds Geoff Bellingham and Craig Cooper before dropping the second. In the third, Shirley and Gordon came back from 9-12 down to win 15-13.

The men's singles final saw fourth seed Sainui Amar Ayob of Malaysia claim his second title over third seed Andrew Smith of England.

Ayob won 15-4, 15-12, to follow his success in the final over Smith in Ballarat, Australia, eight days ago.

The women's singles was won by Rebecca Gordon, who beat Karen Tam 11-4 11-2 for her first Auckland title.

- NZPA