HANGZHOU: National squash player Aira Azman turned 19 today and her birthday wish is to help Malaysia strike gold in the women’s team final against defending champions Hong Kong tomorrow.
That would also be a perfect way for the World Junior Championships runner-up to mark her Asian Games debut.
“I just hope that we’ll do well in the team final. There’s no pressure, so (let’s) just do well,” she said when met at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Squash Court.
In today’s semi-finals, the national women’s team downed South Korea 2-0 while Hong Kong edged India 2-1.
Though Aira didn’t play today and also in yesterday’s last Group B fixture against India, she did contribute points to the team by winning her matches against Nepal, Pakistan and Macao.
Aira will also compete in the women’s singles event, which starts on Sunday (Oct 1).
Since the women’s team event was introduced at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, Malaysia, led by former great Datuk Nicol David, have won the gold medal back-to-back in the inaugural and Incheon 2014 editions but had to settle for bronze in the 2018 edition in Jakarta-Palembang after losing to India in the semi-final.-Bernama