SEPANG, Oct 17 ― Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh described the inclusion of squash in the Los Angeles 2028 (LA28) Olympic Games as good news for Malaysia, which is still chasing its first gold at the world's biggest sporting event.

She said Malaysia is on the right track to achieve positive results in Los Angeles after the squash event contributed three golds at the recently-concluded 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

Hannah said the Road To Gold (RTG) committee will focus on the development to ensure that all athletes who have the potential to win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and LA28 receive due assistance.

"This is because the prime minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) has announced a good budget of RM20 million for RTG next year. We will make an announcement about this after the RTG Committee meets at the end of this month.

"Malaysia welcomes the news to add not only squash but also cricket to the list of sports to be featured in LA28,” she said when met at the sending-off ceremony for the Malaysian Contingent to the 2022 Hangzhou Para Asian Games at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here, last night.

Recently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the inclusion of five sports namely squash, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and baseball/softball in LA28.

At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, the squash camp contributed three of Malaysia's six gold medals through Ng Eain Yow in the men's singles, S. Sivasangari (women's singles) and women's team events.

However, only men's and women's singles events will be contested at LA28.

The listing of squash not only delighted many parties including the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and the Squash Racket Association of Malaysia (SRAM), but also caught the attention of national squash legend Datuk Nicol David.

In her post on X, the former world number one and eight-time world champion wrote: "Amazing amazing! Rightfully deserved after so many years of hard work! Congratulations to our beloved squash and the future champions”. ― Bernama