Waipapa Taumata Rau Make it Four in a Row

The University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau have claimed the National Tertiary Badminton Championship title for the fourth year running, defeating a spirited University of Canterbury team 4-1 in the Grand Final.

Coming into the tournament as strong favourites thanks to a stacked team which included an Oceania Champion, multiple New Zealand team members, and multiple past National Tertiary Championship winners, the University of Auckland squad breezed through to the final dropping just one match in four ties along the way.

The University of Canterbury on the other hand had to dig deep, emerging from an epic semi-final against the University of Otago 3-2 thanks to a 3^rd game victory in the Mixed Doubles.

The Otago pairing of Justin Ho and Claudia Smith took the first game 21-19 to give them one foot in the final before Canterbury’s Jenny Zhu and Aravind Chandran fought back to win the second and third, sending them through instead. Four of the five matches in the tie went to three games, dragging the tie over the 3-hour mark and giving the athletes no time to rest up for their challenge ahead.

The Grand Final started as expected, with Oscar Guo winning the men’s singles comfortably in two games. As she had done all weekend, Canterbury’s Jenny Zhu won her women’s singles match-up over Qiqi Caito to earn their lone point of the tie. The University of Auckland then breezed through both the men’s and women’s doubles in a total of 33 minutes of game time, claiming the tie and the Championship along the way. Their mixed pairing of Shaunna Li and Vincent Tao then put the cherry on top, winning 21-10, 21-16.

In the 3^rd place playoff, locals Victoria University of Wellington claimed the bronze medal with a 3-2 victory over the tiring University of Otago. Standout men’s singles player Bevan Cox won his match against Justin Ho before Caragh Alley made it 2-0 Vic thanks to a wopmen’s singles win. Showing their depth, the University of Otago brought it back to 2-2 in the men’s and women’s doubles before an epic 3-game mixed doubles victory earnt Victoria University of Wellington the medals.

Over in the Tertiary Badminton Cup, first-time entrants XtreMe from the University of Canterbury claimed the silverware defeating Just In Time 2K23 in the final. Led by tertiary badminton stalwart Jun Kit Ng, XtreMe won a back-and-forth final thanks to a mixed doubles victory in the last match of the tie. With their second-place finish, Just In Time now have all three medals after winning bronze in 2020 and gold in 2021.

Congratulations must also go to the Spirit Award winners – University of Otago in the Championship division and Baddies’ Baddie Team in the Cup – along with those individuals selected to the Tournament Teams. You can see a full list of those and other results below.

National Tertiary Badminton Championship:

1^st – University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau

2^nd – University of Canterbury

3^rd – Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka

4^th – University of Otago

5^th – University of Waikato

6^th – Massey University

7^th – AUT

Spirit Award – University of Otago

Tournament Team – Bevan Cox (Victoria University of Wellington), Oscar Guo (University of Auckland), Shaunna Li (University of Auckland), Lucy Thomsen (University of Otago), Jack Wang (University of Auckland), Jenny Zhu (University of Canterbury)

Tertiary Badminton Cup:

1^st – XtreMe (University of Canterbury, Ara Institute of Canterbury)

2^nd – Just In Time 2K23 (University of Auckland, University of Canterbury)

3^rd – Baddies’ Baddie Team (University of Auckland)

4^th –Otago Blue (University of Otago)

5^th – Baozi Baddies (Victoria University of Wellington)

6^th – Yeens (Victoria University of Wellington)

7^th – Otago Gold (University of Otago)

8^th – Slay Slammers (University of Auckland)

Spirit Award – Baddies’ Baddie team

Tournament Team – Isabella Chen (Just In Time 2K23), Anthony Kuan (XtreMe), Phoebe Liu (Just In Time 2K23), Jun Kit Ng (XtreMe), Lauren Phang (Just In Time 2K23), Narayan Shastri (Otago Gold)

 Full schedules and results: https://bit.ly/41JgfF4

Overall Shield and Spirit Standings: Results page