Today, i want to talk about the world number one women's squash player, Datuk Nicol Ann David. She is a Malaysian professional squash player. She is currently the World No. 1 in women's squash (she is the first Asian woman to be ranked World No. 1 in the sport). She captured the World Open title in 2005 and 2006, and the British Open title in 2005, 2006 and 2008. Her first international win was at Hong Kong Under-13 category. Soon, Datuk Nicol began climbing her way up conquering the challenges in the Asian level and world championship.On July 12, 2008, all Malaysian known that squash queen Nicol Ann David was among 497 to be honoured in conjunction with the 70th birthday of the Penang Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas. The Penang-born Nicol, who at the time is the World No. 1 squash player, is among 28 people who will receive the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) which carries the title "Datuk". It will make her the youngest person in Penang to be conferred Datukship. Datuk Nicol was born Nicol Ann David on 26 August 1983 in Penang. She is a daughter to Desmond David, an engineer and Ann Marie David, a retired teacher. She received her primary education at SM Convent, Penang.
I can say that I’m very proud with her achievement in squash sports. If I’m not mistaken, her first encounter with squash began at a tender age of 5, and at the age of 8 she started to take squash seriously with regular training and involved in competitive games. As we all known that being the current World Champion and World No. 1, she is the role model to many Malaysians being someone that achieved huge success in studies, sports and great relationships with family and friends. I’ m very impress with her academic achievement. Her success in squash did not prevent Datuk Nicol to record impressive and outstanding academic achievement. She scored 8A’s in the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) and 9A’s in Sijil Pelajaran Menengah (SPM).
In my opinion, we should encourage a young people to be active in sports early age of secondary school. I can see that nowadays not many young people like squash. This sport is not very popular among the youngest. Maybe it is because of not many facilities like squash court and the racket itself quiet expensive. Besides that, limited squash court also can be reason why the young people do not like this sport.
I suggest that government and private sector should play an important role and they should have alternative to provide as much as they can to build squash court or any facilities related to this sport. So that, many youth have opportunity to play and training squash. Beside that, support from family also important to encourage their children to be active in this sport. For me, Datuk Nicol was a living legend who proves that we can be success in both sport and education field. Malaysia Boleh!
