Canterbury’s Juliana Hung and Auckland’s Jimmy Zheng have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
The pair have been selected for their great form and are the highest ranked juniors in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
They will be 16-years-old at the time of the games and now get the opportunity to compete against some of the world’s best young golfers where the small bracket of young athletes aged from 15 to 18 years old will strive for gold.
There are two divisions at the event with the Men/Women Individual championships being held from 9 – 11 October and the Mixed Gender Team championship from 13 – 15 October.
Hung continues to grow after becoming the New Zealand Stoke Play champion late last year and is gaining vital international experience in big events.
This year alone the 16-year-old Burnside High School student has competed in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in Singapore, Queen Sirikit Cup in Thailand, Toyota Junior Worlds in Japan, and most recently the Junior Open in Scotland at the Home of Golf, St Andrews.
“I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to play at the Youth Olympic Games and meanwhile I’ll be watching the best players play on tour because I want to be like them,” said Hung.
Zheng is in similar form to that which won him the South Island Under 19 Championship earlier this year. The 16-year-old started the final round two shots behind, to then shoot seven-under 66 and win by an impressive two strokes.
He recently won the Ryan Moore Junior Championship in America which was a breakthrough result against a very strong international field, followed with a fifth-place finish at the IMG Academy Junior Worlds and a fourth at the ACDS Junior Championships.
Rio 2016 silver medallist Lydia Ko good luck message
