National badminton masters visit
THE Queenstown Events Centre multisport venue might be a world away from the badminton halls Tracey Hallam is used to playing in, but the Commonwealth Games multimedallist was only too happy to make the trip south for the Badminton New Zealand masters nationals.
Hallam (47) won bronze in the women’s singles and gold in the women’s team event at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, silver in the singles and gold in the mixed teams event in England in 2002, and gold for singles in Melbourne in 2006.
She also competed in singles in the 2008 Beijing Olympics before moving to New Zealand about a decade ago from her native England.
She was one of 130 players aged 3575 from across New Zealand who travelled to the resort for the masters — the first time a national badminton tournament had been held in the Wakatipu.
Seeded second in doubles with partner Ashleigh DaviesKarl and mixed doubles with Kelvin
Ngim, Hallam, who first picked up a racket when she was 7, said after finishing playing in the United Kingdom she did not know what she wanted to do.
She then applied for and was offered a coaching job with the
Waikato Badminton Association, and had since also spent time coaching in Canterbury.
At present, she is Waikato’s coaching and development manager and contracts to Badminton NZ to help with the under15 squad.
Badminton NZ event organiser Jonathon Stone said the organisation had long wanted to bring a tournament to Queenstown and the masters was a perfect fit, given it was as much about socialising as playing badminton.
‘‘They enjoy getting away, so with that particular event we do try to move it around to nice parts of the country where we get the players to come and stay for a few days before or after and have a minibreak alongside the tournament.’’
Hallam was a prime example — she fitted in a quick trip to Glenorchy on Thursday, may try skiing for the first time tomorrow and hoped to have a helicopter trip before she left on Wednesday.
Stone said he loved the masters event because it showed ‘‘the whole spectrum’’ the organisation catered to, from juniors to players in their twilight years who are still ‘‘loving it’’.
‘‘It’s really quite special.’’
The tournament concludes today with mixed doubles, games run from 8am until about 6pm.
was retrieving the dogs after they chased the pig when he let them out for a ‘‘toilet stop’’.
Judge David Robinson said he did not accept that explanation.
‘‘If that was the case, you didn’t need to have the rifle with you.’’
The number of unlawful hunting incidents was on the rise, and Parliament had recently increased the maximum penalty from a fine to two years’ prison.
He made an order for the dog collars and GPS unit to be destroyed.