Hallam (47) won bronze in the women’s singles and gold in the women’s team event at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, silver in the singles and gold in the mixed teams event in England in 2002, and gold for singles in Melbourne in 2006.
She also competed in singles in the 2008 Beijing Olympics before moving to New Zealand about a decade ago from her native England.
She was one of 130 players aged 35-75 from across New Zealand who travelled to the resort for the masters — the first time a national badminton tournament had been held in the Wakatipu.
Seeded second in doubles with partner Ashleigh Davies-Karl and mixed doubles with Kelvin Ngim, Hallam, who first picked up a racket when she was 7, said after finishing playing in the United Kingdom she did not know what she wanted to do.
She then applied for and was offered a coaching job with the Waikato Badminton Association, and had since also spent time coaching in Canterbury.
At present, she is Waikato’s coaching and development manager and contracts to Badminton NZ to help with the under-15 squad.
Badminton NZ event organiser Jonathon Stone said the organisation had long wanted to bring a tournament to Queenstown and the masters was a perfect fit, given it was as much about socialising as playing badminton.
"They enjoy getting away, so with that particular event we do try to move it around to nice parts of the country where we get the players to come and stay for a few days before or after and have a mini-break alongside the tournament."
Hallam was a prime example — she fitted in a quick trip to Glenorchy on Thursday, may try skiing for the first time tomorrow and hoped to have a helicopter trip before she left on Wednesday.
Stone said he loved the masters event because it showed "the whole spectrum" the organisation catered to, from juniors to players in their twilight years who are still "loving it".
"It’s really quite special."
The tournament concludes today with mixed doubles, games run from 8am until about 6pm.
