More Prize Giving pics And taking to the podium are the winners in the WD and XD plus a pic of Sarah Runesten-Petersen with her bronze medal won at the recent World Champs. Sorry not so clear..
I noticed you were weaving in and out an awful lot. You think the players have it hard with their footwork: when you consider the area that you managed to cover (ie, the entire hall for about 4 hours), I'd say you've done quite well yourself Especially in slippers Anyways, great coverage.
It's great that you have capacity audience and national tv coverage. All evidence shows that badminton is gaining in popularity around the world. It would be good if Oceania will have at least a 4* tournament in the near future as there are many badminton-mad nations (South East Asia) in proximity.
Equinox NZ Open 2005 - Epilogue Auckland - Looking back at the NZ Open that just recently concluded, one word does spring to mind, "Success!" Indeed it was a well organised tournament, well supported by both players and the public, receiving live telecast and great sponsorship, all positive encouragement for Oceania's first IBF tournament. During his speech at the prize giving ceremony, the CEO of the major sponsor, Equinox Group was so delighted with how the tournament went that he announced that next year's tournament will be bigger..it will be a 2 star event! This means that it will be a US60,000 tournament and no doubt will attract more star studded players to the tournament. With Sairul Amar Ayob winning his first maiden title on NZ soil, it is more than likely he will return to defend his title next year. Look out for my interview with him coming to the Badminton Central Forum near you! I also had a quick chat with runner-up Fransisca Ratnasari, the no.1 Indonesian player after her finals' match. When asked about how she found the tournament and her first IBF tournament final, she explained that although she's ranked higher than her compatriot, Adriyanti Firdasari, her lost was not that all surprising given that Firdasari is currently a better player than her. The 19 year old however was quick to point out that she hoped that this will soon change. Her future is bright given that she had only started playing for Indonesia for the past 2 years and her target is to win the Olympics gold medal in the Beijing in 2008, to emulate her idol, former Indonesian legend, Susi Susanti. Another catch up session I had was with Sarah Runesten-Petersen. Some of you may recall that I interviewed her fresh after the 2002 Manchester Commmonwealth Games where she won silver with her partner, Rebecca Gordon. This time of course, another medal in her hand, although the colour is Bronze, it is no doubt one that she was absolutely delighted to have won. When asked about their quarterfinal win against the more fancied Korean pair, she said that they played extremely well that day and it did not help the Korean pair who crumbled under the pressure to reach semi-finals while the kiwis knew they had nothing to lose. In the semi-finals however, Sarah pointed out that both the Chinese and them already secured a medal and so there was pressure factor involved. While they felt that they played well, Sarah conceded that on that day, they were indeed no match for the Chinese who played a better game. As the curtain drew to a close on the inaugural NZ Open, I have mixed feelings, happy that I had a chance to see some great matches that will hopefully inspire me when I play for Auckland vs the other provinces in 2 weeks time...but also sad that it has ended and I will have to wait another year to see whether NZ will be the "Middle Earth" once more for Frodo Hidayat or Gandalf Dan. Oh my prrreeeccciiioooouuusssss!!
For your information young man, they're not slippers, but a very highly fashionable jandals, very comfortable to walk around in, I'll be damned if I was going to walk around in heels on the wooden floor, probably get thrown out! If you saw me walking around, why didn't you come up and say hi?! We could have organised a game. I actually ended up playing that evening, practising my singles. So do you play muc noluckjim?
good reporting adelina. I noticed you were weaving in and out an awful lot. You think the players have it hard with their footwork: when you consider the area that you managed to cover (ie, the entire hall for about 4 hours), I'd say you've done quite well yourself Especially in slippers noluckjim, were u watching the games at all
Well done Adeline on those reports. Good Luck to your Slazenger's games in two weeks time. Do you play much on the weekend? Hope to catch up in courts sometime. Cheers
Thanks for the great coverage of the tournament Adelina. You're not stopping by the Australian International to do some reporting to would you? I'll be there, but will be quite busy doing other things, so may not be able to take note of too many games and/or photos...just out of curiosity, is anyone on this forum going to the Aust Int in Ballarat?
Thanks! I'm looking forward to doing well in this. Will be my last tournament for the season as I'm heading to Europe 2 days after the last day of tourney. Last year I missed the upcoming Auckland Champs due to injury, and this year, due to travels :crying: Oh well..there's alwyas next year. Yeah, Seems like you know who I am and I can't say the same about you so please come and say hi if you see me at Gillies Ave. I'm currently training about 3 times a week, and on the weekend, I train on Sunday nights, 6 to 8 with the rest of the Auckland squad. When do you normally play? A
Unlike Ants who's so lucky to go to many tournaments, I'm unfortunately not gonna be able to jet-set anywhere out of the country at the moment, especially with the inter-provincial tournament coming up in 2 weeks. But I'll be in Europe soon, I wonder if there' any tournaments there then..hmms.
Your pic with Adrianti Firdasari, she reminds me of another ex-Indonesian Pelatnas WD/XD player who moved to U.S. not too long ago, Angeline(Angie) De Pauw...
Didn't want to interrupt you, what with that busy schedule of yours and all that (photographs, interviews...) I play as often as I can, which unfortunately is a measly once-a-week ordeal in interclub games which for the most part offer little resistance (I think there are only a couple of teams which have decent players).:crying: Anyways, best of luck with the Slazenger Cup... make sure Auckland stomps on the competition
Many thanks Adelina for working so hard to update us in a timely fashion with your interesting reports. How about telling us more about yourself and your forthcoming competitions? Imagine that, just like Ayob, you've just won the finals or at least your ambition to become a NZ champion!
Thank you for the coverage on the New Zealand Open. Looks like your Open tournament is a better success than ours in Canada. The camera in WC2005. Well, at least Kimberly waved at the camera twice. Donna just hid under the coat and would not show her face at all. I guess Donna is the shy one. Wish them luck in the search for the sponsor and the university study. I am the Asian fellow that they met while waiting for a taxis. They wished that they were recognized by their badminton abilities instead of their appearance on the big screen in the WC2005. I told Kimberly that she may get some contact info for sponsor from this forum. Hopefully, I shall "see" her some day in this forum.
Hiya..aiyoh, dunno what to say leh..I'm just me Other people more interesting lah! From the above, hopefully you can tell I'm Malaysian I came to NZ when I was 19 to study law, fell in love with this country and decided to make it my home. Started playing baddy when I was 8 or 9 but never played competitively in Malaysia (couldn't get rid of baby fat for a while :crying: ) Then when I was in NZ, I started playing more competitively, first representing Canterbury province (in the South Island) before playing for Auckland since last year when I moved up here to further my legal career. If I was a tad bit younger than my ancient 29 years of age, I would have liked to train harder and perhaps see if I could play for NZ one day but unfortunately, the amount of training and time involved to get there is too much a sacrifice especially when you have a demanding full time job as well, as most of you can probably relate to. So I'm content at playing at the provincial level for Auckland's Division 2. Division 1 are made out of the national players. They play in an inter-provincial tournament calls the Wisden Cup and we play in the Slazenger Cup. From 12th September to 17th September, both Wisden/Slazenger tournaments will be held stimultaneously and this is my last tournament of the year before heading for Europe for a holiday for 3 months. The format of Wisden//Slazenger works this way: 4 men singles, 4 ladies singles, 2 mens doubles, 2 ladies doubles and 4 mix doubles, making total games 16. So if you're tied at 8-8 then the victor is determined by countback of sets won, and if that's still indecisive, then total points won. In each team, you can have the maximum of 6 guys and 6 girls (and minimum 4 of each). Each player is then ranked accordingly. Since there's only 4 singles position, we do have players that specialise in particular disciplines. For example, I'm a more capable singles and doubles player than I am a mix player (Don't like being a sitting duck! ). We have not yet been ranked but going on current form, I could be ranked anywhere from 1st to 3rd in singles and 1st in doubles. I'm hoping that I won't have to play mix This is a cool tournament and I'm looking forward to playing well for Auckland. I just don't want to play against these two "imported" players playing for my old province, Canterbury. One's a ex-state player from China and the other is a Japanese ex-rep. So at present, I'll be happy to play at no.3 for Auckland In terms of my previous tournaments, I'm sad to say that I haven't yet won any major tournaments in NZ. Came close a few time. Was once a runner-up in the South Island Champs. I'm hoping to win a title or two before I retire That's all I can think of, but feel free to ask anything else you want to know. I do love badminton with a passion though and hope to play until I'm 100! Adelina
hey another m'sian seeking out in NZ! Glad to know that you are doing well in your career and badminton. Do you miss m'sia?
I'm sure Adelina is enjoying herself and she even finds time to play high-level competitive badminton despite her heavy legal workload. Maybe not so heavy after all for she's able to take 3 months off to tour Europe. A lawyer in NZ must be truly well-paid! I'm sure if Adelina were a few years younger, she would have loved to train in IBF's Germany Training Centre, as what Ruth1 recently did at the Guangzhao TC. But of course Ruth is younger at about 21/22, I think. Wow, if Adelina has the stamina and determination to do what Ruth has done, she could very well become NZ top singles player, even at 29. But will she give up, at least temporarily, her law practice and devote full time to training to ensure she becomes No.1? Then all Malaysians and even a Singaporean like me will rejoice! Fancy that NZ then will have a 'Foreign Talent' in her midst. Well, not exactly, because Adelina must have by now become a NZ citizen, having been resident there for the past 10 years. Remember our evergreen Zhang Ning, whose age is similar to Adelina's? And Zhang Ning has recently expressed her desire to compete at Beijing Olympics 2008, to retain her crown! The much younger Xie Xingfang will have to be on her toes! Enjoy yourself Adelina - during your forthcoming Slazenger Cup challenge as well as your European tour. We look forward to your reports. I'm sure our young lady Joanne from KL (who is very much addicted to badminton like yourself) is interested in what you are doing too.
Khwong, yes I do miss my family but we visit one another from time to time, so that's great but I haven't been back to Malaysia for the past 2 years. It was so funny last time I went back, reached KL International airport and hoping that I will still look 'local' enough so that the taxi drivers won't bug me, but alas, I must have eaten too much lamb in NZ or something because they haunted me like there's no tomorrow! Loh, don't you know that my work as a lawyer is simply to fund my badminton passion? Tee hee.. Actually, I'm quitting my job to go travel in Europe..trying to be care free and 'going with the flow'. Hopefully will meeet an European Prince who will make me his princess and build me like 8 badminton courts beside our castle and I can invite you all over for a tournament! Ooh, training in Germany sounds interesting..I'll have to check it out when I go through there. Hahaha, I couldn't believe you compare me to Zhang Ning..she probably reached her top lvl at 18 and simply maintaining that lvl, is much easier than trying to start from scratch at 29 and trying to be a NZ no.1 by 30?!! Don't be cwazy lah! I'm an enthusiast, but not a miracle worker! Yes, I'll be reporting on the Slaz/Wisden if you guys are interested to hear about it. What a small world it is..I recently told my godbrother about BC who's now living in NZ as well together with his wife. They're originally from Singapore. They actually already know about BC being a badminton enthusiasts as well. In fact, my godbrother, Kit is Explorer 123 from Christchurch that played with a bunch of other BC ppl in the BC get together during the 2004 Aviva Singapore Open. We've jokingly said that perhaps him, his wife and myself would make a trip down to Singapore for the 2006 Open! Actually, during my trip to Europe, I will be in transit over Singapore for 3 hours! You guys in Singapore won't by any chance fancy a mini get together for a coffee perhaps? Better still if there's a badminton court nearby Changi Airport and we can go for a hit before my flight to Amsterdam! Hehehehe
