The Victor Oceania Badminton Championships held in Auckland was an opportunity for the Cook Islands to test themselves against the best in the region.
Organized by Badminton Oceania there were 3 separate events namely the Under 15 Invitational Teams Event, the Under 19 Oceania Individual and Team Event and the Open Oceania Individual and Team Event.
The Cook Islands Under 15’s comprised 3 boys and 3 girls who were joined by 5 other Pacific teams from Guam, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Northern Marianas & Tonga. And after 2 days of combined training sessions competed in a Round Robin Teams event where the Cook Islands took out the Silver Medal after a tightly contested final with Tahiti 3 matches to Cook Islands 2.
In the Under 19’s the Cook Islands were up against the 4 top teams in the Region NZ, Australia, New Caledonia & Tahiti. After a valiant effort in the Individuals event it would be in the Teams event that the team would show their growth taking both Tahiti & New Caledonia to a decider going down 3 matches to 2. This is an amazing result especially when 4 years ago at the last Junior Oceania Championships in 2019 the Cook Islands was not competitive against these 2 countries.
In the Open’s Events the Cook Islands went up against Giants Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Tonga & Northern Marianas and after the Individuals event would compete in their first ever Open Teams Event. And after the Round Robin Event the Cook Islands ranked 4th Overall with Australia 1st NZ 2nd New Caledonia 3rd Cook Islands 4th Tahiti 5th Tonga 6th Northern Marianas 7th. This was a mind-blowing result for the Cooks especially after beating Tahiti 3-2 in the first round. The Cook Islands also received the special team award for the event
CIBA would like to thank our major sponsor Bank of the Cook Islands, CITC and Primefood for their support, Coaches Danny Simpson, Brendan Lee & Hebrew Tom, Managers Jamie Gotty & Jean Akavi, our players, families here and NZ and everyone who supported the team..
