Last week was the first time Brazil has held an international Para badminton tournament, as the community flies three hours west this weekend we look ahead to the first time Peru will play host to the world’s best. 

The Brazil international was not without its issues. Coronavirus fears caused a last minute venue change and hundreds of athletes were moved to new accommodations just a day before the start of play. Then came the floods and day one was a washout. 

Unforeseen, unlucky and unavoidable problems, but credit to the Brazil organisers, the tournament coped well in the circumstances and badminton quickly became the focus once again. What a standard of play! Possibly the most exciting finals day there has been for some time with a few unlikely winners.

Read: Denmark fight hard to win title number six

A total of 219 players make their way to Lima this weekend to compete in Peru’s fist international event, and crucially the penultimate tournament in the Race to Tokyo Paralympic qualifying journey.

I enjoyed my comeback in singles!

Faustine Noel of France was back on court in three events last week in Brazil. For months she has focused on mixed doubles with Lucas Mazur and with Lenaig Morin in the women’s doubles SL3-SU5 class. 

Whilst Noel is still holding ranking positions inside the world top ten in each of the three events, she may be the only European to manage to feature in all three at this summer’s Paralympic Games. A remarkable achievement.

We spoke to Noel about her experience last week, where she picked up two medals in doubles and lost out in the singles quarterfinal. She had this to say

- Last week was good. I enjoyed my comeback in singles! It was a hard quarter final against Ma Huihui (CHN). I am delighted to be back on the podium in women’s doubles with Lenaig!

- In mixed doubles, I am really proud of our semifinal against Fredy and Kalimatus (INA), we take our revenge from the China International last year, she added

- The final was a little frustrating, Harry and Leani (INA) played really well and unfortunately we didn’t find any solution on the day. We will need to analyse the match at home to understand what happened and work on that, said Noel

- Now I am focusing on Peru's Open. Indonesia and China won’t be there so I expect good results this week. Let’s play!

Look out for updates from the Peru Para badminton International 2020 this week, see tournament software here for draws and results.