Second and Third Placings in YONEX NZ Secondary School Badminton Championships
Posted on September 12, 2019
Westlake Boys' vs Macleans College.
Macleans College vs Botany Downs Secondary College
On Sunday 1 September, the premier badminton teams departed for Wellington to participate in the YONEX New Zealand Secondary School Badminton Championships.
The tournament was held from Monday 2 to Thursday 5 September at Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua.
The boys won their matches six all against Palmerston North Boys’ High School, Otago Boys’ High School, Wellington College and Kristin School. They drew three all with Auckland Grammar School, which resulted in a count of the number of games each school won in the match, giving Auckland Grammar School a win by one game. Lucas Mitchell (Batten House) and Jerry Yu (Snell) won their doubles game with determination, after going to three sets. We witnessed a great performance by Johnson Li who won the first two sets in his game. It was an excellent performance by Jerry Yu who played a very close third set in his singles game, giving him a win, 24-22.
The semi-final against Westlake Boys’ High School was played with great effort, even though this match resulted in a loss. Daniel Yang (Snell) displayed an outstanding performance and perseverance to win his singles game in this match. Overall, the match was very competitive with Guang Hao Fan (Rutherford) and Johnson Li (Mansfield) taking their doubles game and Lucas Mitchell his singles game to the third set, as they provided Westlake Boys’ High School with strong opposition. This game can be watched on YouTube, NZ Secondary School Champs: Westlake Boys’ High School vs Macleans College.
The boys won their final match against Rangitoto College winning 5-1, placing the Macleans College premier boys’ team third in the country.
A fantastic performance by the girls’ team too. They won their games six all against Avondale College, Wellington East Girls’ College, Palmerston North Girls’ High School and Bayfield High School. A win of 5-1 against Rangitoto College and 4-2 against St Andrew’s College was another outstanding set of matches.
The girls drew three all in their match against Botany Downs Secondary College, who won by one game in the final. Our doubles pairings, Rachel Li (Rutherford) and Grace Xiong (Kupe) in the second doubles and Janice Jiang (Kupe) and Sonia Lu (Mansfield) in the first doubles demonstrated their dedication to the sport through their strong performance. Grace Xiong also won her singles game, scoring 21-3 in the first set and 21-6 in the second. This game can be watched on YouTube, NZ Secondary School Champs: Macleans College vs Botany Downs Secondary College.
The Macleans College premier girls’ team is placed second in New Zealand. All in all, a magnificent performance by both the girls’ and boys’ badminton teams.
