Games-Malaysia's David savours fourth squash singles gold

By Peter Rutherford INCHEON, South Korea, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Like all dominant athletes, Asian Games squash champion Nicol David really hates to lose, and while her sport failed with its bid to get onto the 2020 Tokyo Olympics programme the Malaysian is not giving up that easily. David beat compatriot Low Wee Wern in the Asian Games final in South Korea on Tuesday, earning her fourth singles gold, 16 years after winning her first in Bangkok. A seven-times world champion and world number one for more than eight years, David says she has lost neither the desire to compete nor the thrill of winning. "They are all very different," David told Reuters of her Asian Games gold medal haul. "Every medal had a different significance to it. "Winning the first one was definitely a highlight when I was 14, but this time, to play against another Malaysian in the final... it was a great day definitely." David had been central to squash's bid to get onto the Olympic programme for 2020 but a decade of lobbying and dreams ended in heartache for the campaign last September when the IOC rejected the sport's bid. Squash had been pitted against wrestling and a joint baseball and softball bid at a vote in the Argentine capital. In the vote, out of 95, wrestling polled an outright majority straight off with 49 votes, with baseball and softball polling 24 and squash earning 22 votes. Despite baseball missing out in the vote, the president of the Olympic Council of Asia has thrown his support behind its bid to return to the programme in Tokyo. Currently a sport needs to be voted in seven years before making its Olympic appearance but Olympic chief Thomas Bach has said he wanted to get rid of the rule in order to refresh the programme and tap into potential new viewers and sponsors. He also wants to increase the number of sports to more than the current 28. David hinted that squash's 2020 dreams were not dead in the water just yet. "Maybe there's a chance or not, we just have to wait and see," the 31-year-old David said. "I hope to be involved some way to help the sport get in, even if I'm not competing anymore. "I just want to see a squash player on the medal podium at the Olympics." (Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)