Softball: Under-19s set for finals

The New Zealand under-19 women's softball team have been gifted a passage to the junior world championships after Oceania rivals Papua New Guinea failed to front at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

Australian and New Zealand officials said both nations were now assured of representing the region at the September championships in China after PNG pulled out of the festival, which doubled as a qualifying tournament, apparently because of financial problems.

They were replaced at the last minute by Argentina.

Despite securing a berth before a ball was pitched, New Zealand showed no signs of slackening off and opened their campaign with a 5-0 defeat of Australia Gold, essentially a development team.

In their second match, the jet-lagged Argentines were no match for the New Zealanders, who rolled to a 4-0 victory on the back of runs to rookie pitcher Amanda Preston, who deputised for Michelle Kingi, Api Stone-O'Kane, Rachel Warren and Stacey Harris.

New Zealand play the Australia Gold and Green combinations today.

Meanwhile, the badminton and table tennis programmes also opened yesterday, with New Zealanders experiencing mixed fortunes.

The table tennis team breezed past New Caledonia 5-0, without dropping a set, in their opening rubber, despite stifling conditions at the Sydney Indoor Sports Centre.

They had a bye in the afternoon as the temperature reached 37C in the non-airconditioned venue and will play Australia 3 today.

However, the boys' and girls' table tennis teams both lost 5-0 to Hong Kong at the same venue.

In an effort to spare the exhausted players, the second-round rubbers were played until a result was reached. The boys were outclassed by Australia 1 3-0 while the girls lost 3-1.

In their final matches of the opening day, both teams bowed out 3-0 to Singapore.

- NZPA