PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s eight-time squash world champion Nicol David is on track to be named the World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time.
The 37-year-old Penangite is leading the 24 athletes named in the first phase of the world-wide poll with 200,000 votes, almost twice the votes garnered by her nearest competitor Russian sumo athlete Batyr Altyev (90,000).
Irish tug-of-war athlete James Kehoe is third with more than 45,000 votes.
The second phase of voting started yesterday with only the top 10 candidates – who keep all of their votes thus far – remaining in the process. Voting ends on Monday, Feb 1.
Nicol is honoured with the recognition to be considered for the award, which takes place every four years.
“It’s a huge honour to be nominated by the World Games for the Greatest Athlete of All Time and to gain so much support from everyone in Malaysia and the squash community, ” said Nicol, who has won three gold and one bronze medals over four outings in the World Games.
“It came as a surprise to be among the other top athletes nominated and I am very grateful.
“If I get a chance to win this, it would be amazing. For me, just to have the recognition through playing squash is great and hopefully it can elevate the attention for the future of the sport.
Nicol called time on her illustrious career in 2019.
She has spent an unprecedented nine years atop the women’s squash world rankings between 2006 and 2015 as well as winning 81 professional titles.
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