Rachel going for two gold medals despite injury

RACHEL Arnold is confident an ankle sprain will not derail her bid to win two gold medals in squash at the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games.

The National Championships runner-up is seeking to retain the Sea Games women’s singles gold medal and teaming up with Aifa Azman for the women’s doubles title.

Rachel, 21, said she is looking forward to getting back on court after allowing the ankle sprain, which happened at the World Doubles Championships in Manchester last week, to heal.

“I took a lunge and twisted my ankle. It’s better now.

“I haven’t started training but have been running. It’s not that serious,” said Rachel who played with Nicol David in the women’s doubles and Syafiq Kamal in the mixed doubles in Manchester.

“Probably tomorrow I will be back on court sparring after doing solo drills yesterday.

“It’s nothing serious to prevent me from playing at the Sea Games.”

Given Malaysia’s strength in depth, World No 52 Rachel will not be playing in the women’s team event in which she helped the country to a gold medal at the 2015 Sea Games in Singapore.

“I don’t mind trying the doubles,” said Rachel, who won a women’s doubles bronze medal with sister Delia at the World Doubles Championships last year.

“It was a good experience playing doubles with Nicol and a good effort to make the quarter-finals.

“I haven’t played doubles with Aifa before but I think if we play our own game on each side it should be okay.

“We will work on the partnership this week. I think we have a good chance of winning.”

Rachel’s main rival for singles gold will be teammate S. Sivasangari, who came on top when they last met in Penang at a Malaysian Tour event in October last year.

“We have not played each other in a while and the last time we met she won,” said Rachel.

“It will be a good match for sure if we both reach the final.” . Devinder Singh