3 continents choose their TUC reps

The badminton confederations of Africa, Oceania, and Pan America were a day early in choosing their men’s and women’s teams to represent their respective continents at the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, with Mexico and New Zealand among the teams rising to the challenge.

Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

As Europe and Asia take an extra day to determine their champion teams, all five continents have in fact chosen their representatives for the Thomas and Uber Cup (TUC) Finals, to be held this coming May in Dongguan, China.  With only one upset, Europe has ended up sending just its four semi-finalists in each event while the lack of upsets in Europe and Asian means that the latter will max out at nine entries and so the knockout round in Hyderabad had no bearing on the qualifications for Dongguan.

It was in the three peripheral continents that things went right down to the wire and there were a few surprises.  First to finish was Africa.  On Friday in Rose Hill, Mauritius, the home team went undefeated, with Yeldy Marie Louison (pictured above) beating Doha Hany to clinch the final over Egypt.

Mauritius was not so lucky in the men’s team final, where South Africa relied on African Games gold medallists Jacob Maliekal and Malan/Viljoen to prevail 3-1.

Click here for complete African Team Championship results

Oceania was the only continental team championship that lacked a knockout stage.  Still, the round-robin play came down to duels between then-undefeated Australia and New Zealand in both the men’s and women’s events.

Australia’s women won their tie handily 4-1, as expected.  The only point for New Zealand came from former world #37 Michelle Chan, now playing at third singles.

Host New Zealand was equally dominant in the deciding men’s tie, however.  Reigning Oceania Champions Matthew Chau / Sawan Serasinghe earned the only point for Australia.   The team they defeated in the continental championship final last year, though, was not playing first doubles.  Kevin James Dennerly-Minturn / Oliver Leydon-Davis (pictured above) capped off the 4-1 win that gave New Zealand the men’s title and booked them a spot in the Thomas Cup Finals in May.

Click here for complete Oceania Team Championship results

In the Pan Am Championships, none of the Pan Am Games gold medallists participated.  The Canadian women’s team, the only Pan Am representative at the last TUC Finals, in 2014, lost out narrowly in the final.  For the second time in the week, they went down 2-3 to the United States.  16-year-old Qinzi Ouyang won both in singles and doubles but the final point when the USA way when Annie and Kerry Xu edged out Michelle Tong / Josephine Wu (pictured above) 21-19, 23-21.

In the men’s final, two men who may end up vying for the last available singles spot for Rio had a showdown to begin the tie.  It was Lino Muñoz (pictured above right) of Mexico who enjoyed a comfortable win over Canada’s Martin Guiffre.  Muñoz’s doubles partner Job Castillo followed that up with his own win before Ramon Garrido finished it off by besting Canada’s newly crowed men’s singles champion Jason Ho-Shue in three games.

Click here for complete Pan Am Team Championship results