14 year old Tina Mii from the small island of Rurutu held her nerve and showed maturity beyond her years as she won the deciding match against Vanuatu to book Tahiti’s place in the Women’s Team final. The petite right hander showed good promise as part of Team Oceania at the 2010 Global Cadet Challenge in Hyderabad, India and again impressed as part of the 2011 Oceania Talent Team trip to Chengdu, China. This morning, when it was needed most she came through with an excellent victory over Stephanie Qwea in four games. She showed patience and a good tactical nous against the defensive style of Qwea in a performance that underlined her potential for the future.
The anchor of the Tahiti victory was no doubt Melveen Richmond as she won all three of her matches against Pareina Matariki, Stephanie Qwea, and Anolyn Lulu and only dropped one game in the process. The remaining Tahiti victory came from Tuarikirau Thunot when she overcame Stephanie Qwea in the opening match of the duel.
For Vanuatu, Anolyn Lulu and Pareina Matariki both recorded victories against Tuarikirau Thunot and Tina Mii.
The Women’s Team final will be played this evening between host nation New Caledonia and Tahiti. The Tahitians will be looking to reverse their group stage defeat while the New Caledonians will be looking to finish the Women’s Team event undefeated. The bronze medal playoff this afternoon will be between Vanuatu and Fiji.
Meanwhile the Men’s Team final will also be a Francophone battle between New Caledonia and Tahiti as both crushed their opposition at the semi final stage.
New Caledonia did not drop a match en route to a five matches to zero victory over Fiji. Laurent Sens defeated Sanesh Chand and Richel Sen, Stephane Gilabert overcame Richel Sen and Wang Qi, and the remaining match was won by Olivier Bilon, he was in the fast lane as he outclassed and outplayed Wang Qi in straight games.
Meanwhile in the other semi final Tahiti only surrendered one match on their way to beating Vanuatu to the tune of five matches to one. The Belrose brothers once again lead from the front with two victories a piece – Alize defeating Randy Benjamin and Ham Lulu, whilst younger brother Ocean overpowered Ham Lulu and Yoshua Shing. Tinihau Klouman also joined the party when he defeated Randy Benjamin to assure victory. Vanuatu’s only success came when Yoshua Shing defeated Tinihau Klouman.
Tomorrow New Caledonia will face off against Tahiti to decide the Men’s Team gold medal. A mouth watering encounter awaits and no doubt the home team will have a packed crowd supporting them all the way. As is the case in the Women’s Team event, Vanuatu and Fiji will playoff for the bronze medal.
Last Modified on 06/09/2011 12:55