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Junior Events in Oceania 2010
The dates and venues have been confirmed for the Goodman Fielder ITF Pacific Oceania Junior Circuit qualifying events. The first event will be the West Pacific Qualifying to be held in Fiji at the Goodman Fielder regional Tennis Centre in Lautoka from 10 to 14 May. The North Pacific Qualifying will be in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands from 14 to 18 June and finally the East Pacific Qualifying will take place in Raraotonga July 5 to 8. The picture below shows 2009 POJC winner Ji Hoon Heo in acition at last years final.
The annual August program of events in Fiji has been brought forward for 2010 so as not to clash with the Youth Olympic Games Tennis event in Singapore. The POJC finals will now be held 26 to 30 July and Oceania Junior Championships ITF B2 event from 2 to 6 August.
Dates have been confirmed for the two ITF junior circuit events in the Pacific which kick off the ITF Oceania winter junior circuit. The BNP Paribas New Caledonia Junior Tournament will take place in Noumea from 21 to 26 June and will be followed by the Air Pacific South Pacific Junior Championships in Lautoka from 29 June to 4 July. As usual players will be able to travel between the two tournaments on the Air Calin connecting flight on Monday 28 June. Fact sheets for these tournaments are available on the website under SPOJC section. Players are reminded that to enter these events they must have an ITF IPIN and that entry must be made online with ITF, not with the tournaments.
The Oceania Closed Junior Championships will be held in Lautoka from 2 to 6 August. This is the major event on the Oceania junior calendar for the year. The winner of the 2009 event Jason Kubler (AUS), pictured below is now ranked four in the world in juniors. A tremendous achievement by Jason which illustrates the importance of this tournament. For the first time players will enter this tournament online with ITF and must be aware of the special selection criteria which will be posted on the website and also available from their national associations.
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Goodman Fielder POJC
Report from Dan O'Connell.
Following three qualifying events played earlier in the year (Fiji in the West, Guam in the North and American Samoa in the East), ITF travel grants assisted qualifying players to participate in the ITF Pacific Oceania Junior Championships held at the Goodman-Fielder Regional Training Center, in Lautoka, Fiji.
In the 18s championships Zinnia Leamana of Solomon Islands defeated top seed, 14 year old Papua New Guinean Marcia Tere-Apisah and Ji-Hoon Heo from Northern Mariana’s defeated surprised finalist, 15 year old Chris Hargrove of Fiji. One of the most outstanding players was 13 year old Annie Shannon of Fiji. Annie only lost a handful of games in her six matches to dominate the 14s girls, defeating Assya Trimari from New Caledonia. And New Caledonia player Clement Coarraze, the 2008 runner-up, defeated Fijian Devin Khatri to take the boys 14 title.
In doubles: Hargrove/Reddy captured the 18’s boys with their win over Heo/Lai. Leamana/Tere-Apisah defeated Hazelman/Korinihona in the girl’s 18’s. Shannon/Kamoe won the 14’s girls over Banimatoku/Puluspene and in the boy’s 14 final Coarraze/Tito defeated Duchnak/Ngana.
Based on their individual finish in the POJC, the final points of each of the regional team members are then added together to find the winning region and the West Pacific Team underlined its dominance by making it nine POJC wins in a row. Congratulations to the West Team that consists of players from Papua New Guenia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. The North Pacific Team was able to capture second place while the team from the East Pacific finished in third place.
The ITF and the OTF would like to thank Olympic Solidarity Program for their continued assistance in the success of these regional championships. The high quality of play in the POJC, especially in the girl’s events, is a result of the year-long training programs of the players and their coaches.
Goodman Fielder support of the event and the Goodman Fielder Regional Tennis Centre is much appreciated and the photo below shows GF sales manager Simon Zoing presenting a cheque to OTF President Geoff Pollard for sponorship for a further twelve months.
Congratulations to the top four players in each event:
Boys 14
1. Clement Coarraze (CAL)
2. Devin Khatri (FIJ)
3. Ngana Nicholas (COK)
4. Rafael Jones (NMI)
Boys 18
1. Ji Hoon Heo (NMI)
2. Chris Hargrove (FIJ)
3. Diva Reddy (FIJ)
4. Luke Paeni (SOL)
Girls 14
1. Annie Shannon (FIJ)
2. Assya Trimari (CAL)
3. Thea Minor (NMI)
4. Lorish Puluspene (PNG)
Girls 18
1. Zinnia Leamana (SOL)
2. Marcia Tere-Apisah (PNG)
3. Amanda Korinihona (SOL)
4. Adalyn Hazelman (FIJ)
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