As opposed to the junior event, the VICTOR Oceania Open Mixed Team Championships 2019 has been played in a round robin format, allowing all seven of the teams who entered to play against each other. Day two saw the fourth, fifth and sixth ties take place ahead of the final day on Sunday 17 February.
10AM – MORNING SESSION
First seeds Australia began the day with their third consecutive 5-0 victory against the third seeds, Tahiti. Similarly, the second seeds from New Zealand followed in a similar fashion with a 5-0 victory against Samoa. Meanwhile, the fourth seeds from Fiji survived their encounter against Guam, with the overall result coming down to the last game – men’s doubles. Fiji’s Ahmad Ali Burty and James Molia secured the 3-2 for Fiji against Guam’s Junior Baptista and David Yao after defeating Junior Baptista and David Yao 21-13 21-9.
“It was a crucial match for us to win and we started slowly but managed to win in the end. Guam have had a very long week with just four players so all credit to them. We were practising communication and attacking combinations today as this is a great opportunity to gain experience ahead of the Samoa 2019 Pacific Games in July.” – Ahmad Alu, Fiji.
|
AUSTRALIA [1] |
5-0 |
TAHITI [3] |
|
FIJI [4] |
3-2 |
GUAM |
|
NEW ZEALAND [2] |
5-0 |
SAMOA |
2PM – AFTERNOON SESSION
The afternoon session was a 5-0 whitewash across the board as Australia and New Zealand showed their dominance in the Open Mixed Team event. Samoa’s Tupu Fua and Hilton Soo almost managed to deny New Caledonia the chance of a 5-0 win after taking Yohan De Geoffroy and Bryan Nicole to three games. However, the pair couldn’t capitalise on their first end win and eventually lost the match 15-21 21-15 21-16 in 32 minutes.
|
NEW ZEALAND [2] |
5-0 |
TAHITI [3] |
|
AUSTRALIA [1] |
5-0 |
FIJI [4] |
|
NEW CALEDONIA |
5-0 |
SAMOA |
6PM – EVENING SESSION
Tahiti won their tie against New Caledonia which puts them in a good position for third place, however this all depends on their result against fourth seeds, Fiji, which takes place tomorrow. Meanwhile, Samoa finished their last match of the Mixed Team event, going down to Guam 4-1.
New Zealand finished their evening on a high with another 5-0 win, leaving Australia and New Zealand at the top of the round robin table at the end of day two. The two countries will fight it out for first place in tomorrow’s tie which takes place from 12 noon. Australia and New Zealand will also be competing for this historic Whyte Trophy, which is an exclusive competition between the two nations.
“We’re feeling exhausted after a long day but we’re excited for the match against Australia tomorrow! We’re feeling positive and the event has been a great way to bring the team together. Our focus is now on tomorrow, it’s always going to be a tough match but we’re excited to see where we could go under the guidance on our new coach and previous world number one, Rikke Olsen. “ – Justine Villegas, New Zealand
|
TAHITI [3] |
2-3 |
NEW CALEDONIA |
|
NEW ZEALAND [2] |
5-0 |
FIJI [4] |
|
GUAM |
4-1 |
SAMOA |
You can view all of today’s results on Tournament Software.
The final day of competition takes place from 12 noon on Sunday 17 February 2019 – you can view the schedule here.
Remember, you can watch Australia compete against New Zealand on court one, live and for free on OVO mobile.
