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University Games
Australian University Games – Gold Coast: 23rd – 28th September 2007
Whilst most tourists were soaking up the sun in the sweltering heat on the beaches of Surfer’s Paradise, UNSW were busy competing throughout the week in the annual AUG championships.
After close to 6 months dedicated training and on the back of medal successes in the East Coast Challenge, the AUG represented the pinnacle of the 2007 badminton season for UNSW’s student elite.
The week started off with contrasting fortunes for the men’s and ladies’ teams, with the men receiving a tough start, being drawn to play group matches against the top 3 Universities on the first two days of competition.
After some strong performances and close matches in the opening ties, confidence was starting to build and impressive victories against Griffith and MacQuarie universities set up a 5th place playoff match on the Friday against UWA who had celebrated a narrow 3-2 victory against the UNSW men on the Wednesday.
Derek Woo Wai Pui got the match off to a great start with a straight sets victory in the 3rd singles tie only to be followed by an impressive performance by Zong Chang Lee in the 1st singles rubber putting the team in a 2-1 lead going in to the doubles matches.
Aggressive play from the pairing of Indeewa Chandrawansa and Dickson Wong guaranteed the match victory and 5th sport overall with Zong and “Ming” Putra closing out the final doubles rubber in style to give the team a 4-1 victory.
The ladies commenced competition with a narrow defeat to a strong UWA team before steamrolling the likes of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney en route to a semi final match-up on the Thursday, again with UWA.
After dropping the first two singles rubbers, captain Spoorti Rattan secured a must win tie against her opposite number to set up a tense finale to the match going into the doubles ties.
Vivian Ong and Shu Wen Chua secured a straight sets victory in the second doubles, leaving the tie perfectly poised at 2-2 going into the final rubber.
The excellent doubles play from the partnership of Sarah Goh and Spoorti was too much for their UWA counterparts and the girls were delighted at securing a well deserved place in the final against the pre-tournament favourites, Monash.
The final was always going to be a tough encounter, but with a straight sets victory from Spoorti in the 1st singles the team found themselves in the same position as in the semi-final going into the doubles ties.
Battling performances from both doubles pairs were unfortunately not enough to take the gold as Monash ran out 4-1 winners with UNSW having to settle for silver.
Many congratulations to all the players involved who were a credit to themselves and the university in the way that they performed.
A mention must also be recerved for Eric Permana who collected a “Green and Gold award” as recognition of his performance, court manners and sporting conduct throughout the competition.
We have a very young team and are counting the months until next year’s competition when we will without doubt be even more of a force to be reckoned with!!!!
The teams were as follows:
Men: Zong Chang Lee (c), Eric Permana, Derek Woo Wai Pui, “Ming” Putra, Dickson Wong, Indeewa Chandrawansa.
Women: Spoorti Rattan (c), Vivian Ong, Sharon Wong, Sarah Goh, Shu Wen Chua
James Paybody
Team Coach
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