KUALA LUMPUR: The Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) sees S. Sivasangari's stated goal of winning a gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as achievable.
World No. 15 Sivasangari said yesterday she wants to win a gold medal at the 2028 Olympics.
SRAM director (rtd) Major S. Maniam said it is a realistic, positive and determined statement by the 25-year-old Sivasangari.
"We appreciate and support her. If you look at the manner in which she has been performing and training and the results she got, I'm very pleased with it.
"She has another four years and to get a medal, she needs to break into the top 10 in the world. She will definitely achieve that.
"To win the gold in the 2028 Olympics, Sivasangari needs to play three to four days of very high level competitive squash.
"As for now she gets into quarter-finals or semi-finals in PSA tournaments, she gets one or two high quality matches.
"But to win something she must be able to play high-level competition for four continuous days," said Maniam.
"The kind of training that we need to impart for her has to be one of high intensity and sustainability.
"She must be able to play high intensity not for one day but she must be able to do it for four continuous days.
"Therefore the physical conditioning and match play level must be of the highest level and in order to do that, her training needs to step up, which she is doing.
"Besides training under coach David Palmer in Cornell in the United States, she also gets views and input from other coaches around."
Maniam said although the Egyptians are dominating world squash, each country is allowed to enter only two players for each individual events in the LA Olympics.
"So we only need to take on two Egyptians and that is when the challenge comes in for Sivasangari. I will be concerned about two-time world junior champion Amina Orfi of Egypt who might give other players a real tough challenge in four years' time," said Maniam.