KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 ― Former Malaysian squash player Datuk Nicol David is on the verge of winning the World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time (GOAT) with a comfortable lead in the online poll.

Though being the only Asian candidate, the eight-time squash world champion had garnered 240,296 votes as of 2pm today, to lead the race with more than 100,000-vote advantage.

Her closest competitor is Irish James Kehoe representing tug of war with 97,140 votes, followed by German Marcel Hassemeier (lifesaving) with 78,686 votes and women powerlifting athlete Larysa Soloviova from Ukraine with 68,220 votes.

The 37-year-old Penangite, who had an unprecedented nine-year reign as the world’s number one, was among the 23 other candidates ― the best athletes of representing various sports from all editions of the World Games’ 40-year history ― in the poll.

The voting at the https://www.theworldgames.org/awards/The-World-Games-Greatest-Athlete-of-All-Time-81 will be closed Monday (February 1) at 2pm Central European Time (CET) or 9pm Malaysian time.

"You can give your votes to the candidates on The World Games website once per 24 hours. Votes must be given each time to two candidates: two votes to your first-choice candidate and one vote to your second-choice candidate.

"If you try to give votes to one candidate only, the votes will not be registered,” according to The World Games. ― Bernama