Badminton in gold play-off

Normal, Sports

A MIXED PNG-Australia team will play for the badminton gold medal in the 55+ ‘recreational’ division at 11am today following a six games to two semi-final win yesterday against the WSBA Scorpions.
This followed victories on Saturday and Sunday against three Australian teams with a 8-1 victory over the Scorpions; a 6-3 win over the Melbourne Shuttlemaniacs and a 6-3 win over the Willoughby Badminton Association.
The full-fledged PNG team in the 40+ ‘recreational’ division will play off in the crossover semi-finals tomorrow for the bronze medal.
Captained by James Voon of Rimbunan Hijau, the team yesterday went down 5-4 to COZNZS and will meet Night Owls C today to contest for third placing and the bronze medal.
The PNG team of three men and four women is considered to have a good chance of capturing the bronze as they had easily defeated Night Owls C 9-0 in their first round encounter.
Participating for Papua New Guinea in the 55+ age team competing for gold include Brian Gomez (captain), David Tan, Joe Choong and May Gomez.
The eight member team was reinforced with three Malaysian Australians – Nina Smith, Sally Chua and Tan Ai Geok and a last minute Canadian entrant, Michael Rasmussen.
They enter the final against Warren’s Warriors, a team from Tasmania, as underdogs after a narrow 5-4 loss during an earlier match round robin event.
More than 800 players from around the world are competing in badminton among more than 28,000 competitors from some 95 countries.
Following the finals today in the team event, most of the PNG entrants will be competing in the individual singles, doubles and mixed doubles events in their respective age groups.