French hearts break as Faustine Noel withdraws after one match, due to an injury she suffered during a road accident two weeks ago.
Faustine Noel, the French SL4 player managed to stay on her feet for her opening group match in the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles today, with partner Lucas Mazur, but the match did not go to plan and she was clearly suffering in pain throughout.
After pulling out of the SL4 women’s singles before the event began, the world number two French second-seeds aimed to live up to their ranking and go all the way this week in the mixed doubles. Noel also made the final in Ireland in the SL3-SU5 women’s doubles event with new partner Lenaig Morin, and qualified for the world championships in all three events.
A tough group made things worse for the French, who lost their opener to Rickard Nilsson (SWE) and partner Helle Sofie Sagoy (NOR) 17-21, 21-15, 19-21.
Read: Jorgensen ‘still on his way back’
“I intend to stay here with the team”
- I’ve had lumbago over the past weeks, I tried physio and medication to get better but then during training on Sunday it was still very painful so I decided not to play singles, only mixed doubles. But even that was difficult and we lost today.
- The back pain puts pressure on my leg which is disabled, and then the leg muscles are tense which puts stress on the back and it goes in a cycle. When I go back to France I will need to get complete treatment and medication for maybe two weeks.
- I intend to stay with the team this week and support them and I do believe Lucas will win the SL4 singles here, Faustine Noel told BWF Media, Geetha Lakshmayya, after the mixed doubles group B match.
The day one Para-Badminton World Championships 2019 results can be found on tournament software here. Look out for live stream matches, live commentary and highlights each day on BadmintonWorld.tv.