Nicol David & Ong Beng Hee In Double Asian Games Gold Triumph For Malaysia

Malaysia celebrated a unique squash gold double in the 15th Asian Games today when world number one Nicol David defeated title-holder Rebecca Chiu in the women's final and Ong Beng Hee retained the men's crown after fighting back from a game down against compatriot Mohd Azlan Iskandar at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, Qatar.

As expected, Nicol David exorcised her demons of the last Asian Games by triumphing in the women's singles. Four years ago, the Penangite suffered a devastating loss to Rebecca Chiu in the final in Korea which caused her to take a four-month break from the game to reassess her career in the sport.

But it was a whole different story this time as she brushed aside her rival from Hong Kong 9-0, 9-3, 9-3 in just 34 minutes.

Clad in a striking red and black outfit, the Malaysian 23-year-old was a picture of concentration and determination as she took to the court. David stamped her authority on the game early on and raced into a 3-0 lead. She made good use of the court to stretch that advantage to 5-0. Try as she might, Chiu had no answer to the world champion's incessant pressure and the opening game ended with a 9-0 whitewash in just six minutes.

David began the second game in similar fashion, winning the first point by varying her pace. Chiu finally broke the ice with a powerful shot to the right-hand corner of the court. But David was soon on top again and, after a series of long rallies, stretched her lead to 4-1, before wrapping up the second game 9-3.

In the third, the world number one raced into a 3-0 lead. The defending champion managed to win a few points after an impressive array of shots and evened the score at 3-3. But David, the 1998 champion, returned with a series of clinical executions to confirm her status as the Asian Games' top player and seal the match with a 9-3 score in the final game.

Nicol David's gold marked the 200th for Malaysia in the history of the Asian Games!

After the game, David was keen to play down any talk of revenge: "There is no thought of revenge. It is more about wanting to win that medal. She is a hard player to play and I had to keep her out of her comfort zone.

"It was a good match and I feel really ecstatic. It was the last day of the last tournament of the year and there was so much pressure on both girls leading into the game. It has been a great year and a great way to finish off by winning here."

Chiu said: "I played just normally. Nicol overpowered me and put me under great pressure. I think I should have been more patient. I need to work hard to win against her. I knew it before I started the match. She is so much better than me. Her speed and strength were superior, so I couldn't perform to my full potential. It was easier for her to get a point and very hard for me to respond."

In the men's final that followed, Ong Beng Hee confirmed his status as the top player in the region when he beat the higher-ranked Iskandar 5-9, 9-1, 10-9, 9-5 in 73 minutes - appropriately the longest match of the tournament.

Beng Hee, for many years the top-ranked man in Malaysia, won the Asian Games gold medal four years ago in Korea. But since then, the 26-year-old from Kuala Lumpur has twice lost to his 24-year-old fellow countryman - and Iskandar is currently ranked 13 in the world, five places above Beng Hee.

The pair have been playing each other for a very long time now. At the Asian Championships in Chinese Taipei earlier in the year, Beng Hee beat Azlan 3/0. Earlier that month Azlan had beaten Beng Hee in a closely-contested final of the Kuala Lumpur Open. They may have differing styles of play, but they know each other's game well and their level of play is almost similar. Unlike the women's match there was no clear favourite.

The first game was played at a medium pace with Azlan being the steadier of the two. Beng Hee's game was laced with far too many errors and he promptly lost the game. Beng Hee increased the pace in the second and top seed Iskandar started making the errors. The third was more or less the same as second seed Beng Hee raced to an 8-5 lead.

Azlan forged a comeback to make it 8-8 but a couple of errors saw him lose 10-8. The fourth was close until half way, when the title-holder smelled blood and attacked all the way to the crown for the second time in a row.

While Nicol David - whose title haul for the year is now eight and her unbeaten run stretched to 36 matches since July - will return to her home in Penang for Christmas, both Ong Beng Hee and Mohd Azlan Iskandar will race to Saudi Arabia to compete in the Saudi International in Al-Khobar. The second richest PSA Tour event of the year gets underway on Saturday (16 December), with Iskandar seeded 10th and Beng Hee 11th.

Men's final:
[2] Ong Beng Hee (MAS) bt [1] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) 5-9, 9-1, 10-9, 9-5 (73m)

Women's final:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [2] Rebecca Chiu (HKG) 9-0, 9-3, 9-3 (34m)