Australia has once again announced itself as Oceania’s strongest badminton nation with a resounding 5-0 victory over New Zealand in Invercagill.

The Kiwis strongest challenge came in the form of the mixed doubles pairing of Donna Haliday and Henry Tam who secured the first game of their match against the more experienced Aussie duo of Kate Wilson-Smith and Glenn Warfe.

Earlier in January Badminton Australia announced that they will be adopting a new tiered scholarship program for their National Squad selection process. Eleven of the country's best players were named in Tier 1 with another nine named to Tier 2.

The Victorian pairing of Glenn Warfe (pictured left) and Ben Walklate are familiar names to the badminton community, and it was little surprise that both players were named in Tier 1. Glenn won the Oceania Championships in 2008, where then twenty three year old Ben was a semi-finalist. Both players are looking forward to a massive 2010 that may even include a medal in Delhi.

Australia will send a team of four boys and four girls to the Yonex-Sunrise BWF 2009 World Junior Badminton Championships which are taking place in Malaysia in late October.

The team consists of some experienced campaigners and some new faces.

Six of the eight representatives are Victorian, indicating the strength of the sport in the southern state.

The 2009 Whyte Trophy has been awarded to New Zealand for the 7^th consecutive time. The Kiwis produced a dominant display of Badminton retaining the award on home soil with an overall score of 3 ties to nil.

In the first test on the 5^th of September the Aussies got their campaign off to a solid start with victories in both the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles. However, the hometown favourites then asserted their authority with impressive straight sets victories in all of the three other matches.