Raj Veeran, 25, and his younger sister Renuga Veeran, 24, were born in Malaysia but moved to Sydney seven years ago to further their school studies. Now residing in Victoria, the siblings, who will compete in the mixed doubles together in Delhi, only received their Australian citizenship a few months ago paving the way for them to represent their adopted nation.

South Australia’s Kate Wilson-Smith has been selected to compete in her fourth Commonwealth Games in October in the mixed and women’s doubles. Making her debut at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games, the 31-year-old veteran initially retired after Melbourne 2006, but the hunger to win a Games medal was too strong and she made her comeback to the sport a year ago.

Also competing in the women’s draw and making their Commonwealth Games debut will be He Tian Tang (Rosy), who won a bronze medal for China in the women’s doubles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Chai Chi Huang who represented Chinese Taipai at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, and South Australia’s Leanne Choo, the youngest in the team at 19, who will compete in the women’s singles and doubles.

Adding even more experience to the team, Beijing Olympians Ross Smith (men’s doubles) and Glenn Warfe (men’s and mixed doubles) return to compete at their second Commonwealth Games after making their debut at Melbourne 2006.

Twenty-two year-old Jeff Tho (singles) who hails from Bendigo in regional Victoria and Western Australian Nicholas Kidd (singles) complete the team.

“This is probably the best and most experienced team we have selected in a very long time,” said Australian head coach Lasse Bundgaard.

“We didn’t win a medal at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games however I believe we have very strong medal prospects for Delhi, led by He Tian Tang and Chia Chi Huang.”

In announcing the team today, Australian Commonwealth Games Association CEO Perry Crosswhite said the badminton team will face stiff competition in Delhi.

“Australia will place a strong team on the court in Delhi, however they will be tested by Malaysia and England who have been the dominant force in badminton over the years,” Crosswhite said.

“The host nation India also have a long tradition in the sport, and given their rapid improvement in recent times are also expected to field a formidable line up.”

Badminton made its debut on the Commonwealth Games programme in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966. It was the first racquet sport to be included in the Games and has remained on the program ever since.

Australia has won 11 medals in badminton since 1966, two gold, one silver and eight bronze. Michael Scandolera (Vic) and Audrey Tuckey (WA) combined to deliver Australia’s first gold in the mixed doubles in 1986, followed by Lisa Campbell (Vic) in the women’s singles in 1994.

Six gold medals will be on offer in Delhi – men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles and team.

The badminton competition will be staged from October 4 to 14 at the recently constructed and world-class Siri Fort Sports Complex in Delhi.

2010 Australian Commonwealth Games badminton team

Coach: Lassa Bundgaard

Coach: Ricky Yu

Manager: Rhonda Cator

The draw has been done under the scrutiny of the Tournament Referee and the laws governing the number of teams registered for the event.

We look forward to seeing you all in Adelaide shortly.

Please let us know quickly if any assistance is needed in getting teams from the Airport to your accommodation on arrival as we can have someone at the airport to assist (flight details will be needed)

Click here for the position description and click here for the advertisement.
 

Please note that the closing date for this is Monday 2 August 2010. The application is also available from the Oceania website www.oceaniabadminton.org.

The day started off with what was an unexpected final. 3/4 seed South Australian Verdet Kessler had defeated the top seed in the semi final while Wendy Chen had defeated the second seed and 3/4 seed in the quarter and semi finals respectively, playing well above the 5/8 seed that was given to her. Chen got off to the stronger start of the two players and breezed through the first game 21-8 before Kessler leveled the match at one game all after taking the second game 15-21. However it was to be Chen who would continue her giant killing run, taking out her higher seeded opponent 21-16 in the decider.

The boys singles final was a much more one sided affair, with second seed Luke Charlesworth of New Zealand claiming comfortable a straight games victory 21-12 21-17 over his compatriot Asher Richardson.

Wendy Chen was back on court with fellow Queenslander Christina Chan in the girls doubles final, taking on Victorian's Louisa Ma. After the first set the Victorian pairing was in full control, but a strong fight back from Chen and Chan had the game back on even terms. In a closely fought set it was to be the Queenslanders who would come out on top with a 11-21 21-18 21-17 victory, making it two titles from two finals for Chen.

The boys doubles saw unseeded Victorian Sawan Serasinghe and Western Australian Bryan Tang team up to take on New Zealand's 3/4 seeds Maika Phillips and Te Ao Kura Van Selm. The Australian's started strongly to control the match from early on to take the first game 21-17. From there they didn't let the kiwis back into the match, taking the second game and with it their forst national title 21-16.

The final match of the day was the mixed doubles final, seeing Wendy Chen attempting to claim the triple crown and Luke Charlesworth aiming for his second title of the day. With a top seed yet to claim a title, unseeded Chen and Mitchell Wheller would have been confident going into the game against the top seeded Kiwis Charlesworth and Mary O'Connor. But any confidence was to be short lived, with Charlesworth and O'Connor showing why they were giving the number 1 tag, claiming a comfortable 21-17 21-17 win.

Players will now turn their focus to the CP Maddern Teams' Championships which gets underway on Wednesday.

The first two days of competition have produced some high class badminton, and has also seen the seeded players perform well, with all but a hand full progressing through to the quarter final stage. This was particularly evident in the boys singles, girls singles and girls doubles where the top 8 seeds in each event have progressed through to the quarter finals.

Although the seeds have progressed it has not always been comfortable, with Sawan Serasinghe and Brendan Tieu both going down in their boys singles round of 16 matches 22-20 in the third set against their higher rated New Zealand opponents

The biggest upsets of the day however came in the mixed doubles when the number two seeded combination from New Zealand of Asher Richardson / Madeleine Stapleton and the 3/4 seeded Australian's Boris Ma / Louisa Ma were ousted from the mixed doubles event, both going down in tough three set matches to unseeded Australian opponents.

The boy's and girl's doubles events will see Australian pairs against Kiwi pairs in 7 of the 8 matches, with the other being an all Aussie affair. With so many Trans Tasman matches on the cards it is sure to be an exciting day of badminton.

Click here for full results from all events

It was always going to be a tough ask for Australia to retain the trophy after going down to Singapore in the 2 round, however there was still a chance should they claim a comfortable victory of their arch rivals New Zealand.

The match got off to a close start with the teams two rubbers each after the first two boys and girls singles, but it would be New Zealand that would take a slender lead into the doubles after they claimed both the third singles.

With Australia trailing 4-2 the doubles matches were going to be critical, and with both matches evenly poised after the first two sets there was some hope for Australia, unfortunately for the Aussies they dropped both the final sets and with that New Zealand claimed an unassailable 6-2 lead.

The mixed doubles were dead rubbers, however as with all Australia V New Zealand matches there was a lot of pride still on the line. The Australian's fought hard to claim two of the 3 mixed to make the final score line 7-4 in favour of New Zealand.

The win completed an unbeaten series for New Zealand who claimed their first Pan Pacific Series since 2005. Singapore Sports School finished second, Australia third and New Zealand Associations in fourth place.

Players will now turn their focus to the Westpac New Zealand International that gets underway today. Click here to keep up to date with scores from this event

The tie was close all night with the sides 3 all after the singles and 4 all after the doubles. Unfortunately for the Aussies the Singaporeans had the edge in mixed doubles claiming to out of the 3 to take the tie 5-6.

In last night's other game New Zealand easily accounted for New Zealand Association 8-3.

It now means Australia must beat New Zealand convincingly in tonight's match to retain the Pan Pacific Series Trophy which they have held since 2006.