Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games - ACGA Media Release - Badminton Team announced

Media Release

Wednesday 1 February 2006

BROTHERS BREHAUT HEAD BADMINTON TEAM

An exciting mix of experienced players and an injection of youth will play
badminton for Australia at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games following the announcement of the ten member team today.

The team consists of five players who represented Australia in the 2002
Games in Manchester with Kate Wilson-Smith, Travis Denney, brothers Ashley
and Stuart Brehaut and Kellie Lucas all bringing Olympic experience, along
with their Manchester memories to the court in Melbourne.

The Brehaut brothers from Ballarat become the third set of siblings in the
2006 Australian Commonwealth Games team, joining squash sisters Rachael and Natalie Grinham and skeet shooting brothers Clive and George Barton.

The experienced group will be joined by an exciting bunch of youngsters who
will make their major championship debut in Melbourne. Glenn Warfe, 22, and
Ross Smith, 21, will combine in the men's doubles and the youngest member of the team, 19-year-old singles player Erin Carroll and 21 year-old singles
specialist Foong-Meng Cheah will gain valuable experience competing in front
of their home crowd.

Rounding out the team is singles and doubles player Tania Luiz, the
22-year-old psychology student who was born in India, but moved to Melbourne when she was nine.

The team is dominated by Victorians, which reflects the importance of the
National High Performance Centre, which is based at Altona.

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 a programme sport on every edition since.

Of the 59 gold medals competed for in badminton in Games history, Australia
has won only two - a women's singles victory to Lisa Campbell at Victoria in
1994 and a mixed doubles win by Mike Scandolera and Audrey Tuckey in
Edinburgh in 1986.

Malaysia has been the dominant country in men's badminton, winning both
men's golds as well as the women's doubles in Manchester in 2002. England
has generally held sway in women's competition, although Singapore picked up the women's singles gold at the last Games.

Badminton will be featured on all eleven competition das of the Games and
will be held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The team event will run
from 16 March with the medal matches on Monday, 20 March. Teams will
initially be grouped in pools of four or five teams, with the highest placed
in each, after the round robin section, moving to the medal rounds.

Competition in singles and doubles begins on 21 March, with the gold medal
playoffs in each of the five disciplines set for the morning of the final
day of competition on Sunday, 26 March. Losing players and pairs are
eliminated after one defeat. The draw includes seeding of the top players.

Unlike recent Games, at which bronze medals were awarded to both losing semi finalists, playoffs for third will occur in Melbourne in 2006, on the eve of
the major medal matches.

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

"Predicting the strength of the opposition is difficult as he combinations
of singles, doubles and mixed doubles will depend on how each nation
configures their maximum entry of five men and five women.

"Some nations may wish to focus on the singles, rather than doubles, however we know that Malaysia, England, New Zealand, India and Singapore will field very strong teams.

"Our doubles and mixed doubles combinations, particularly Travis Denney and
Kate Wilson-Smith in the mixed and Kate and Kellie Lucas in the women's
doubles have high hopes.

"But after Lisa Campbell's performance in Victoria in 1994, when she won a
surprise gold medal, making specific predictions in the badminton is fraught
with danger, Mr Crosswhite said.

2006 Commonwealth Games Badminton Team:

Men Women
Stuart Brehaut (27, VIC) Erin Carroll (19,VIC)

Ashley Brehaut (25, VIC) Foong-Meng Cheah (21,VIC)

Travis Denney (29, WA) Kellie Lucas (27, VIC)

Ross Smith (21, VIC) Tania Luiz (22, VIC)

Glenn Warfe (22, VIC) Kate Wilson-Smith (27, SA)


For further enquires regarding the announcement please contact:

Perry Crosswhite - (03) 9654 4755

ACGA Chief Executive Office

good luck to Team Australia, hopefully home court advantage would help in collecting one or two medals. :)

btw, Foong-Meng Cheah sounds like an asian name to me, maybe from Malaysia??

good luck to Team Australia, hopefully home court advantage would help in collecting one or two medals. :)

btw, Foong-Meng Cheah sounds like an asian name to me, maybe from Malaysia??

that has to be the weakest team entered for some time. word has it there is some controversy.

wats the controvesy?i havent heard about it...i just know lenny's injured so shes left out

wats the controvesy?i havent heard about it...i just know lenny's injured so shes left out

yes heard that one too. thats a shame as it makes the team very weak without her. also I was told that one member of the top mens doubles pair was dropped. cooper.maybe he was injured too.

btw...r they ages stated above correct?is tania only 22 and erin carrol only 19?why didnt i see here playing in U19 tournys last year then?

btw...r they ages stated above correct?is tania only 22 and erin carrol only 19?why didnt i see here playing in U19 tournys last year then?

Erin Carroll may have turned 19 last year & thus been too old.

Who would you like to have seen in the team Bamta?

Erin Carroll may have turned 19 last year & thus been too old.

Who would you like to have seen in the team Bamta?

not sure!! I dont really know the players that well. But I would have like to see Lenny Permana play again. I have seen her in Australia

tania was born in india? in another article it says she came to australia from saudi arabia when she was small i am confused where was she born? is her dad an indian/ a muslem? no wonder she doesn't look like an aussie....no offence sorry tania

ur obssesed dude!!!chill

ur obssesed dude!!!chill

what are you? a stalker.
leave the poor girl alone

what are you? a stalker.
leave the poor girl alone

WTF???!!! u saying im a stalker?wat did i say?

WTF???!!! u saying im a stalker?wat did i say?

hehehe no no!!!!! I actually meant to reply to the other one

Badminton compititions of Commonwealth Games should have no any points for world ranking, I think. And players taking part in Games will not be able to play in China Master 2006 which is a 6 star IBF WGP tournment. Before TUC finals and world championships, world ranking is very important for any team and player to be in a kind of advantaged situation.

Badminton compititions of Commonwealth Games should have no any points for world ranking, I think. And players taking part in Games will not be able to play in China Master 2006 which is a 6 star IBF WGP tournment. Before TUC finals and world championships, world ranking is very important for any team and player to be in a kind of advantaged situation.

Can u rephrase plz?i kinda dnt get wat u mean

I saw Warfe and Smith playing at Altona yesterday after my school match. Smith is like the tallest, lankiest guy i've ever seen and his smashes are insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek ::eek: My team mates and i were just standing there mesmorised.
He jumps like half way to the roof and he can reach from one side of the court to the other. There's no way we can lose:).

I saw Warfe and Smith playing at Altona yesterday after my school match. Smith is like the tallest, lankiest guy i've ever seen and his smashes are insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek ::eek: My team mates and i were just standing there mesmorised.
He jumps like half way to the roof and he can reach from one side of the court to the other. There's no way we can lose:).

then you obviously havent seen the results from the oceania champs last week, I just looked up the results and the Australians got smashed in all areas. you need more than a smash to be good at badminton i think. Think badminton in Australia must be worried getting so beaten.

Dude u obviously havent seen top class badminton...or mayb becoz it was a contrast from wat the school tournament that u were playing in were

Aussies get smashed by Kiwis and not many Kiwis even make the main round draw in All England...so u can imagine from there...but i guess kate and travis might get a shot at bronze maybe...only "maybe" coz theres the msians, the england world no.1 the kiwi world champs bronze medallist...and u neva know who else...but if draw favours them they have a chance for bronze

Dude u obviously havent seen top class badminton...or mayb becoz it was a contrast from wat the school tournament that u were playing in were

Aussies get smashed by Kiwis and not many Kiwis even make the main round draw in All England...so u can imagine from there...but i guess kate and travis might get a shot at bronze maybe...only "maybe" coz theres the msians, the england world no.1 the kiwi world champs bronze medallist...and u neva know who else...but if draw favours them they have a chance for bronze
You are right about the Kiwi's smashing the Auzzies but not about the all england. All Kiwi's were directly in the main draw. Also currently when looking at the strenght of both the Thoms Cup and Uber Cup teams from New Zealand they would be ranked 6th in the world when looking at the individual world rankings of all players and pairs in the team. Not bad eh?

Hahahaha. Let's not have a grudge match here. Chill guys.

IF you see the release of the Mixed Team draw for the CG, NZ is ranked 3rd and Singapore 4th, with Canada being 5th and Australia coming in at 6th unfortunately.

Interestingly, the Aussies will have a chance to turn the tables on the Kiwis as they are both grouped together in Group B. Only the best 2 teams in each group will advance to the quaterfinals (knock-out) stage. If they play to form, both the Aussies and Kiwis should be the top two teams of Group B. Question is who will be 1st and who will be 2nd. The 2nd in the group will no doubt be facing the top team of Group A, which unfortunately will be the almighty Malaysians, the top seed. So the Trans Tasman rivalry will be ferocious as each will try to avoid the fate of being beaten by Malaysia in the quaterfinals and missing out on the podium.

Based on current performances and forms of the players, the Kiwis should beat the Aussies but then again the Aussies will have home ground advantage and no doubt, verocious crowd support. I'm rubbing my hands in glee and anticipation of the NZ vs Australia match. Hopefully it'll provide me with juicy ingredients for my daily report on the event. Be sure to read all about it on the IBF website :p

A

Adelina, I wonder how you'll choose your words if the Aussies should triumph.

As I understand it the matches were pretty close during the TUC and now that they are playing on home ground, 'luck' seems to favour them. :p

It will be an interesting pool in Pool B, as mentioned both Aussies and Nz teams will be desperate to win to avoid playing malaysia in the quarter finals. Aussies have been losing to NZ quite consistently of late but with a late injury to John Gordon, ruling out their top mens doubles pairing and some better results from Kate/Kellie in ladies doubles there just maybe an upset brewing.

Aussies r desperate to win a medal in this event and there will be a fair bit of emotion thrown in with retirement looming for a few players and some surprise picks for the team.

Come on the Aussies... turn the tables on the Kiwis and bring home a medal in front of the home crowd.

You are right about the Kiwi's smashing the Auzzies but not about the all england. All Kiwi's were directly in the main draw. Also currently when looking at the strenght of both the Thoms Cup and Uber Cup teams from New Zealand they would be ranked 6th in the world when looking at the individual world rankings of all players and pairs in the team. Not bad eh?

U seemed like u registered on here just to reply me that...to tell u the truth, i aint aussie nor an aussie fan, neither a kiwi hater, ive live and played badminton in NZ b4, wat i was saying is just the truth, maybe all of them went in the main draw but thats because only their top players played and they have good rankings, and i think none made it to the 2nd round:rolleyes:??

Their rankings are high up only because they play a lot in tournys around oceania, and there are no competition, they kick the aussies ass, win it, gain ranking points, and shoot up in ranking...am i wrong...maybe thats apart from Dan and sara who obviuosly are pretty good, and btw Dan's a very talented player IMO too bad he's quite old now...but on top of that, for eg John Moody, his ranking between 30-40 i think(might be wrong), but he would easily be beaten by a world ranked over 100 malaysian, chinese, korean or indonesian or denmark player...simply because those countries have so many good players those others dnt get a chance to play tournys...so ranking does not show much unless ur in the top 15

But 1 thing i have to say, Im impressed by Bad NZ, theyve done a fantastic job promoting badminton in NZ and we've seen tremendous improvements in the squad, plus i admire some of the players determination, among them Rebecca Bellingham, Dan, Sara theyve tried really hard...
And if u havent know this Bec has done alot of work promoting badminton in NZ especially to juniors, u see her on the "no speed limit" logo...and her car has that logo as well lol...

And on that i have to admit Kiwis are much more hardworking and has a better system to develope talents than the aussies in term of badminton so im guessing thats the reason y aussies have got their ass kicked(tho Lenny would kick all their ass when she recovers lol)...so once again hardwork proves to be the key to success...

So conclusion, to "coach", ive seen badminton in both countries from grassroot level to national squad, and read alot about professional badminton and follows the whole season, so i know where Kiwis and Aussies stand in terms of badminton in the world...I am by no means bias to NZ nor Aus...only country i would be bias towards is msia coz im born malaysian and would never forget where i came from...

Good luck to both sides in the games and one thing i know, "malaysia will kick Englands ass this time round"...hehehehe:D:D:D