Go Kiwi

"Go Kiwi's"

New Zealand has just completed a very successful series of international tournaments, held in Auckland from April 1st to 18th. Amongst the most outstanding results of an incredible list of successes were;

Karen Li winning the Oceania Women's singles, qualifying for both the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 Women's World Cup.
Kevin Wu winning the Oceania Youth Olympic Qualification Tournament, qualifying for the 2010 Youth Olympics, as well as the Oceania under 18 singles and doubles (with Thom Nguyen).
Julia Wu winning the Oceania Youth Olympic Qualification Tournament, qualifying for the 2010 Youth Olympics.
Jenny Hung winning the Oceania under 21 Women's Singles.
Roger Rao winning the Oceania under 15 Boys Singles.
The under 18 Boys Team (Kevin Wu, Lingnan Kong, Thom Nguyen and Oliver Scarlett) winning the Oceania Under 18 Boys Teams event, qualifying for the 2010 World Junior Championships.
The under 15 Boys Team (Roger Rao, Xu Ning and Prajoal Arisht) winning the Oceania under 15 Boys Teams event.
The under 18 Boys Team (Kevin Wu and Lingnan Kong) winning the Global Junior Circuit (GJC) under 18 Teams event.
The under 15 Girls Team (Jennifer Tseng, Sophia Dong, Ruofei Rao and Haoyi Li) winning the Oceania under 15 Girls Teams event.
Roger Wang and Ruofei Rao winning their respective Oceania Boys and Girls under 12 Singles events.

Karen's win against Australia's Miao Miao (who had been in hot form both internationally and domestically in Australia recently), ensuring our first team or individual qualification for the 2010 Commonwealth Games was clearly a massive result. We still have a number of upcoming opportunities for our top men and women to add to the list of qualifiers, but it is very encouraging to have at least one person qualified for the Games so early in the process. This is our best chance to showcase our sport and athletes to the NZ public.

Kevin and Julia have won the opportunity of a life-time, to attend the very first Youth Olympics, an event that will not only focus on elite competition but also explore the Olympic philosophy of fostering improved international understanding through sporting and cultural exchange.

A full list of medalist is below and takes a fair bit of reading, however it is clear just from the highlights above that this was a wonderfully successful event from New Zealand's perspective with particular note of the promise shown by our younger players of great things to come in the future!!

Congratulations to all those who had success at these tournaments. It was a very long event for the juniors and the way they maintained and built their standards throughout is a great credit to the players, their coaches as well as the team officials (coaches, managers) and the parents who created such a positive environment during the event that allowed the players to thrive. Awesome job by all!

Oceania Championships - Individual Events

Women's Singles

Gold Medalist Karen Li (Qualification for Commonwealth Games)
Bronze Medalist Sun Yang

Women's Doubles

Silver Medalist Karen Li/Sun Yang
Bronze Medalist Jenny Hung/Michelle McCarthy

Mixed Doubles

Silver Medalist Nathan Lowe/Karen Li
Bronze Medalist John Cordue/Jenny Hung

Men's Doubles

Silver Medalist Josh Alexandre/Matthew Lowe
Bronze Medalist Nathan Lowe/Ryan Zhu, John Cordue/Phillip Xiao

U21 Women's Singles

Gold Medalist Jenny Hung

U21 Women's Doubles

Silver Medalist Jenny Hung/Jessica MacAskill
Bronze Medalist Jennifer Tseng/Julia Wu

U21 Men's Singles

Silver Medalist Phillip Xiao

U21 Men's Doubles

Silver Medalist Matthew Lowe/Phillip Xiao
Bronze Medalist Thom Nguyen/Kevin Wu, Myles Collins/James Harter

U18 Boys Singles

Gold Medalist Kevin Wu
Bronze Medalist Lingnan Kong

U18 Boys Doubles

Gold Medalist Kevin Wu/Thom Nguyen
Silver Medalist Lingnan Kong/Oliver Scarlett

U18 Girls Singles

Bronze Medalist Julia Wu

U18 Girls Doubles

Bronze Medalist Julia Wu/Jennifer Tseng, Natalie Paterson/Sophia Dong

U15 Boys Singles

Gold Medalist Roger Rao
Bronze Medalist Xu Ning

U15 Boys Doubles

Silver Medalist Roger Rao/Prajoal Arisht
Bronze Medalist Xu Ning/Jerry Cang

U15 Girls Singles

Bronze Medalist Jennifer Tseng, Sophia Dong

U15 Girls Doubles

Silver Medalist Jennifer Tseng/Sophia Dong

U12 Boy's Singles

Gold Medalist     Roger Wang
Silver Medalist     Dean Shu
Bronze Medalist   Victor Ma

U12 Boy's Doubles

Gold Medalist Victor Ma/Dean Shu
Bronze Medalist Jeremy Cheung/Laurence Shum, Roger Wang

U12 Girls Singles

Gold Medalist Ruofei Rao

U12 Girls Doubles

Gold Medalists Roufei Rao/Ola Ratka

Oceania Championships Teams Events

Women's Team (Karen Li, Sun Yang, Jenny Hung, Michelle McCarthy, Sarah Her-Lee)

Silver Medalist (lost to Australia 2-3)

Men's Team (Nathan Lowe, Phillip Xiao, John Cordue, Ryan Zhu, Kevin Wu)

Silver Medalist (lost to Australia 0-3)

Under 18 Boys Team (Kevin Wu, Lingnan Kong, Thom Nguyen, Oliver Scarlett)

Gold Medalist (beat Australia 3-1) Qualification for World Junior Championships

Under 18 Girls Team (Julia Wu, Jennifer Tseng, Natalie Paterson)

SIlver Medalist (lost to Australia 0-3) Qualification for World Junior Championships

Under 15 Boys Team (Roger Rao, Xu Ning, Prajoal Arisht)

Gold Medalist (beat Australia 3-2)

Under 15 Girls Team (Jennifer Tseng, Sophia Dong, Ruofei Rao, Haoyi Li)

Gold Medalist (beat Tahiti Nui 3-2)

Oceania Youth Olympic Qualification

Boys

1. Kevin Wu (Qualification for 2010 Youth Olympics)
3. Thom Nguyen

Girls

1. Julia Wu (Qualification for 2010 Youth Olympics)
4. Jennifer Tseng

Oceania World Cadet Qualification

Boys

3. Roger Rao (Qualification for Oceania Team for World Cadet Championships)
4. Prajoal Arisht

Girls

3. Jennifer Tseng (Qualification for Oceania Team for World Cadet Championships)
4. Sophia Dong

Global Junior Circuit (GJC) Individual Events

Junior (U18) Boys Singles

Bronze Medalist Kevin Wu

Junior Boys Doubles

Bronze Medalists Kevin Wu/Thom Nguyen

Junior Girls Doubles

Bronze Medalists Jennifer Tseng/Julia Wu

Cadet (U15) Boys Doubles

Bronze Medalists Roger Rao/Prajoal Arisht

Hopes (U12) Boys Singles

3rd Place Roger Wang

Hopes Girls Singles

3rd Place Ruofei Rao

GJC Teams Events

Junior Boys

Gold Medalist - Lingnan Kong, Kevin Wu (NZ 'A')
Bronze Medalist - Thom Nguyen, Oliver Scarlett (NZ 'B')

Junior Girls

Silver Medalist - Julia Wu, Natalie Paterson

Cadet Girls

Bronze Medalist - Jennifer Tseng, Sophia Dong (NZ 'A'), Ruofei Rao, Haoyi Li (NZ 'B')

Posted 24.04.2008