Medals secured by Lubransky, Gourdie

Nelson’s Martin Lubransky and Andrew Gourdie have finished among the medals at the New Zealand masters badminton championships in Dunedin.

The pair combined to win silver in the 55-plus men’s doubles, with Gourdie also picking up silver in the mixed doubles with Canterbury’s Lyndsay Dick.

Lubransky repeated his 55-plus men’s singles victory of last year and also won silver medals in the 60-plus men’s doubles with Otago’s Jim Hoffman and the 60-plus mixed doubles with 80-year-old Northland player Grace Clements.

Previously, Nelson’s two teams couldn’t repeat their heroics from last year after losing efforts at the South Island interprovincial veterans teams event in Timaru. Nelson’s division one team of Heidi Meyer, Deb Robinson, Christine Wallace, Jay Brown, Gourdie and Lubransky was defending its 2016 title while the second team of Connie Avery, Evelyn Learmonth, Ann-Marie Moynihan, Colin Garnett, Brett Robinson and Peter Walker was aiming to stay in division two after winning division three in 2016.

However, some late illnesses and unavailability weakened both teams, the division one team finishing third following respective 5-4 losses to both Otago 1 and Canterbury 1 and a 9-0 win over Canterbury 2. The division two team suffered three losses and will return to division three next year.