Whether or not she would have been selected for England is another matter, but speaking a week after reaching the semi-finals of her latest tournament, in Tallin, Estonia, part of the European badminton circuit where 64 of Europe’s best women players took part, she said she would be in Melbourne, Australia, in March.
‘The problem is that the Games clash with the Danish nationals, and as I am No 1 at my club, my coach obviously wanted me to put club before country.
‘As Denmark isn’t part of the Commonwealth, and he knew little about them, he even implied that perhaps I could change the dates of the Games! ‘I had to explain that they only come round every four years and that nothing would stop me representing Jersey.
Obviously, he wasn’t very pleased about it, but Paul Huddlestone has already been in touch with me over travel arrangements.
‘The criteria set by the Island is that I have to be either in the top 200 in the world or in the top 20 in England.
My recent semi-final success, two weekends ago, mean I am currently No 4 in England and No 66 in the world.
So, according to the criteria the Island Association has set, I’m going.’ After a few days’ training following a rare week’s holiday, Pasturel played powerfully in her opening round, where she beat Finlands’ Noora Virta 11-1, 11-8.
Maintaining that theme in the quarter finals she beat another highly-ranked European player, Lithuanian Akville Stapusaityte, 11-8, 11-3.
However, feeling nervous at reaching her first semi-final on the circuit, she then lost to Austria’s Simone Prutsch (currently ranked number 47 in the world) 11-6, 11-6.
The scoreline, however, does not reflect the pace of the game or the tough fight the Island girl put up before being beaten.
Afterwards, as upbeat as ever, Pasturel pointed out that this had been a tremendous bonus in a season that has also seen her reach the quarter-finals of the Italian, Irish and Hungarian international tournaments on the European tour.
For the summer months she will be subjecting herself to a punishing training regime both for the start of the next tournament season and also for the Commonwealth Games which she is so looking forward to.
