Courtesy of ITTF-Oceania
Oceania’s biggest rivals had to settle with splitting the loot in the team events today at the 2018 ITTF-Oceania Junior Championships in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
In the Under 18 Team Event it was Australia that came away with the gold medals.
In the Junior Girls the Aussies upset the seeding as they blasted their way past top billed New Zealand 3-0. It was an impressive display of teamwork from the girls Down Under. The previous day New Zealand had walked away with gold in both the Cadet and Junior Singles, and were seemingly favourites going in to today’s final. But after Parleen Kaur took out Jiayi Zhou 3-1, the Aussies didn’t look back. Australian won the next two matches 3-0 to seal the victory.
Meanwhile in the Junior Boys gold medal match it was one way traffic. The experience outfit of Benjamin Gould, Mateo Dvorani and Bob Liang led Australia to a comfortable 3-0 win to take the gold medal.
It was a different story in the Under 15 Team Event, with New Zealand emerging as the dominant force in the cadets category.
The Kiwis were flawless in the Cadet Boys event, maintaining a clean sheet throughout. Australia attempted to put up a fight in their deciding group match, even managing to push the doubles encounter to a deciding game. But New Zealand proved too strong, winning gold with a perfect 3-0 record.
In the Under 15 Girls’ Teams New Zealand also came away with gold, but were given a scare by a feisty Fiji outfit.
After Fiji’s Filomena Duncan narrowly lost 11-9 in the fifth in the opening encounter, Neli Duncan put up a solid 3-1 win to level the team score 1-1.
But New Zealand quickly snuffed out the prospect of an upset, and won the next two games 3-0 to take top place on the podium.
