Nicol to lead national team to World Doubles Championships, World Games

Malaysia's squash queen Datuk Nicol David will lead the national team to the World Doubles Championships to be held in Manchester, England, on Aug 1-5.

Nicol will partner Rachel Arnold in the Women's doubles event while other pairs consist of Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan-Ivan Yuen and Muhammad Syafiq Kamal-Ng Eain Yow in the men's doubles.

While in the mixed doubles event, Malaysia is banking on Rachel and Ivan.

Squash Racquet Association of Malaysia (SRAM), Director of Coaching Major (R) S. Maniam said the championships would provide an overview of where the Malaysian pairs stood in the international doubles circuit.

"It will be the first major doubles championship that Malaysia will be participating in this year. It will be good preparation for the SEA Games athletes to gear themselves up for the challenges ahead.

"It will be a great preparation for the team leading towards the Commonwealth Games which will be held next year in Gold Coast, Australia," said Maniam in a statement today.

Before the World Doubles Championships, the national team would be competing in the World Games in Wroclaw, Poland on July 25-28.

For the record, Nicol has participated in the last three World Games and won a hattrick of golds in Germany (2005), Taiwan (2009) and Colombia (2013) while retired player Azlan Iskandar won bronze in 2009.

"Nicol is expected to once again retain the gold medal for the fourth time this year which will be a record. As for the men we are hoping for Wan (Mohd Nafiizwan) or Ivan to make it to the semis at least," he added.

The World Games has brought together a total of 33 countries throughout years since it first started in 1997 except for the year 2001 where squash was not in the World Games. -- Bernama