Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng and Sivasangari Subramaniam have made history by becoming the first squash players to qualify for the 2028 Olympics after winning gold medals at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
The defending champions won the men’s and women’s singles finals on Sunday and earned a ticket to the 2028 Los Angeles Games, where squash will make its Olympic debut.
Squash is among a handful of sports at Aichi-Nagoya where a gold medal serves as automatic qualification for the next Olympics.
Both Ng and Subramaniam successfully defended their titles without dropping a single game in their campaigns. Their victories gave Malaysia its fifth and sixth gold medals.
World number 18 Ng thrashed India’s Abhay Singh 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 in 33 minutes at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena and became the first Malaysian to qualify for the Olympics.
World number five Subramaniam joined her compatriot soon after when she made quick work of the women’s final against India’s Anahat Singh.
She demolished Singh, ranked 17th in the world, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 in just 23 minutes to clinch gold.