Cook Islands U17 team won silver at the 2024 VICTOR Oceania Championships U17 Invitational Team Challenge in Geelong, Victoria, Australia.

Badminton Oceania reported that playing against Tahiti, Cook Islands came away with the first win in the mixed doubles. 

Tahiti then fought back as Ethan Wolf-Micas won the men’s singles to even the score. 

Cook Islands Te Pa Tupa had an outstanding win in the women’s singles to take the Cook Islands ahead once again. 

But the Tahitians were not done, creating the most exciting men’s doubles result to keep the tie alive.  The fifth and final match was a thriller, sending the hovering crowd into raptures as Tahiti won the match and the gold medal.

Thomas Mereana-Ngauru, President of Badminton Cook Islands said “It was heartbreak for the juniors.  We would have loved to take Tahiti down.  Sometimes it’s hard to gauge how well we are doing until we come to a tournament like this and see the positive results”.

Mereana-Ngauru told CI News: “To be honest we knew we would do well and that it was either going to be Gold and Silver. 

“We had a good chance at Gold, especially having the top two U17 players in the Pacific Te Pa Tupa and Kaiyin Mataio but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be but I'm extremely proud of all of the teams.”

He said their first ever men's team had their first ever win against Fiji with both the open teams coming fourth and just missing out on a medal.

Badminton Cook Islands is now preparing two players to qualify for the Junior Olympics in 2026 and they are focused on the AIMS Games in September and World Junior Champs in October in China