Opening night Thursday 26th May 2022, Edgewater Resort, Umu hut, 5:45pm was a start to an awesome night of the first ever Badminton Oceania Masters in Paradise 2022, in association with Badminton Oceania. The night saw the blend and mingling of local players wth the NZ and Australian based players. The night was filled with canopies, Cook Islands dancing by Nicolea Mateariki, followed by a brief introduction from the teams and also the presentation of ‘Goodie bags’. The night finished with a bit of Karaoke and good music, before everybody retired to there rooms, resting for day one
The age was no barrier when it came to 5 first two days. With the oldest players in there 70’s. They showed no sign of backing down and rose to the challenge. There were also some fierces games played by our NZ teams yesterday, against our local teams. Hawkes Bay versus Coco Smash was one of them. Unfortunately, Coco Smash was unable to keep up with the number two seeded players, and lost 186 points to 91 points
Auckland Pinoy’s versus Mighty Royales was another tough match to watch, with some of the games scoring one each score everytime. However, Mighty Royale managed to win against Auckland Pinoy’s 129 points to 165 points, banking them a spot in division one. Full Results Here
During the tournament, there was also an umpires course practical test that was ran alongside the Masters in Paradise. Giving the chance for 11 individuals of mixed ages to put there theory to pratice and to be Pacific Umpire Accredited by Badminton Oceania, and received there Certificates during day 2 of the tournament
A ‘Yankee style tournament’ was also ran on day 2, to engage with other badminton players, generally made of junior players, which gave them the opportunity to play with NZ players. The day ended with everyone mix and mingling and enjoying pizza
Sunday, Captain Tama’s. The team got to enjoy the island excursion which included, a boat ride out on to the Motu(Atoll), swimming and snorkelling with the fishes followed by lunch and show (how to tye the sarong), and some more swimming, before returning back to the Edgewater
The day ended with a come and try out Air Badminton down at the Edgewater Resort.
Bring on the final two days. Goodluck to all teams in division one and two
Badminton Cook Islands 