Youth given head

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 30

Youth given head

A promising eighteenyear old player, Dean Galt of Wellington, has been selected for the first time in the New Zealand badminton team to compete for the World Cup in Jakarta next month.

The team, of predominantly experienced internationals, is, (not in playing order) Men: Kerrin Harrison (North Shore), Glenn Stewart (Counties), Phil Horne (North Shore), Graeme Robson (Auckland), Kevin Ross (Wanganui), Dean Galt (Wellington). Women: Toni Whittaker (Auckland), Jane Clarke (North Shore), Rhona Robertson (Auckland) Lynne Horne (Auckland), Julie Still (North Shore), Katrin Blair (North Shore). The team leaves for

Jakarta in mid-May to compete in the world team championships for the new Sudirman Cup and in the world cup individual championships. Along with Galt, the only newcomer to the team, another outstanding 18-year-old, Rhona Robertson, Auckland, a Über Cup representative and holder of the Australian under-18 singles titles, has also gained selection. The national coach, Martin Andersen, said the team was a mix of proven experience and youth. The selectors had been looking to the future, particularly to the 1990 Commonwealth Games and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, with the selection of some younger players.

Andersen said Nick Hall, aged 18, North Shore, who won the Australian under-18 singles title last year, had only just missed selection and would be “knocking at the door” next time. Andersen said the support from the New Zealand Sports Foundation had been important because it had made it possible to send a team of six men and six women. “With six men and six women we can now set up our team to have players in one individual event and not playing in all of them,” he said. “This is important because the heat in Jakarta will mean it will take the players a longer time to recover from a match.”