Malaysia became the first nation to win both men’s and women’s team squash gold medals at the Asian Games after completing a golden double in Nagoya, Japan.
The Malaysian women retained their title with a 2-1 victory over Hong Kong, China before the men defeated Pakistan 2-0 to claim their first team gold since 2018.
Aifa Azman put Malaysia ahead in the women’s final with a 11-9, 11-9, 12-10 victory over Tomato Ho before Hong Kong levelled through Sin Yuk Chan.
Chan recovered from losing the third game to defeat world No.5 Sivasangari Subramaniam 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7 in a five-game battle.
Aira Azman then secured the title by beating Ka Yi Lee 11-9, 11-5, 11-4.
“I was quite nervous playing in the third match today,” Aira Azman said. “Having never played as a decider, there was pressure as it was crucial.
“Trying to defend the title, I am happy that I was able to play well today with the team’s belief behind me.”
Subramaniam, who had won the individual gold the previous week, said Malaysia had felt the pressure of entering the team event as top seeds.
“We are happy to win the gold medal, this definitely means a lot,” she said. “Defending the title, and defending the gold is a great achievement and we are very proud to have achieved that.”
The men then completed Malaysia’s historic double against Pakistan.
Ameeshenraj Chandaran recovered from losing the opening game 11-8 to Nasir Iqbal, winning the next four games to take the match 8-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-4.
Eain Yow Ng then faced Noor Zaman in a rematch of their singles semi-final and completed a comeback from 2-1 down to win the decisive match.
Ng took the opening game 11-8 but Zaman responded with 11-6 and 11-7 wins. Ng levelled with an 11-4 fourth-game victory before winning the fifth to seal Malaysia’s second gold of the day.
“It feels amazing to have got the gold today,” Ng said. “I am so happy for this team.
“I have won the gold myself but this week is about playing for the team. It feels nice to back that up in the toughest match I have had across the two weeks, as Noor played unbelievably today, and wasn’t missing much, so I had to dig deep.”
Ng said the achievement was significant for Malaysian squash.
“Winning two gold medals, it is huge for Malaysia and all of our team involved this week,” he said. “It is so tough, but it means so much, and I don’t think it gets much better than this.”