KUALA LUMPUR: The Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) is thrilled that the sport they love so much has finally made it into the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
It is a dream come true for SRAM as all its hard work in getting squash into the Olympics since 2012 has come to fruition.
SRAM director Major (rtd) S. Maniam said they are delighted that their sport will finally be in the Olympics.
"It is a dream come true for us. It was a moment to cherish and we are so excited.
"We hope that squash will be in the Road to Gold (RTG) Programme as it is now an Olympic sport.
"I assume that there will be men's and women's individual events for squash in the LA Olympics in 2028.
"We have five years to prepare our players to win a medal.
And I believe that our male and female players Ng Eain Yow and S. Sivasangari will be 29 and 30 and they will peak by 2028.
"Eain Yow is ranked top 20 in the world while Sivasangari is ranked top 40, and in the next five years we hope that they will be ranked top 10 in the world to fight for a medal in the 2028 Olympics.
"We also have young players like the Azman sisters and a few men players like (C.) Ameeshenrajand. Hope they too will make progress in their game to be in the Olympics.
"The players will need in-depth training, more competitions and continue making progress in their world rankings," said Maniam.
SRAM secretary Nafzahizam Adnan said that all their hard work since 2012 had paid off and they are overjoyed with squash in the Olympics.
"We hope the government will support us more financially as we need the money and sponsors to prepare our players to put up a strong challenge in the Olympics.
"We have proven ourselves in the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou to win three gold, one silver and one bronze.
"We have Eain Yow and Sivasangari as the Asian individual champions and our women's team did well to gold to be ra nked top in Asia. "Now we have five years to plan a programme to make sure our players will also be among the best players in the world to win medals in the Olympics.
"The players are also excited that they will feature in the Olympics in five years.
And I am sure these players will work very hard in training and competitions to live up to the challenge in the Los Angeles Olympics," said former national player Nafzahizam.