Nicol David, best squash gold medal hope in Commonwealth Games

KUALA LUMPUR: National squash queen, Datuk Nicol David has been targeted to clinch a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in April.

The Squash Rackets Association of Malaysia coaching director Maj. (R) S. Maniam said apart from the singles event, three other doubles events could also be medal hopefuls.

“Nicol is very focused on delivering a gold medal to the contingent and I am confident with her capability, while it will be more difficult to predict for the doubles.

“It will be quite difficult for the men’s doubles while the women’s doubles and mixed doubles have better chances. Nonetheless, I am confident our doubles understand the event better with several doubles tournaments now,” he said after a Games’ Selection Committee meeting.

In the meeting held at the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), SRAM listed nine players, but the association was still not ready to reveal the selected players.

However, the players were touted to be Nicol, S. Sivasangari, Rachel Arnold, Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan, Ng Eain Yow, Ivan Yuen, Mohd Syafiq Kamal and Sanjay Singh Chal.

In another development, Maniam praised the achievements of the country’s young players who won four out of five girls’ categories at the British Junior Open Squash Championship which ended on Sunday.

“We are proud of the players who won medals or titles and as for those who did not win any medals, they had put up very impressive performances,” he said.

The four gold medals were in the Under-13 by K. Sehveetrraa, Aira Azman (U-15), Aifa Azman (U-17) and Sivasangari (U-19 ). - Bernama