KUALA LUMPUR: The Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) is looking to quickly move its players up the rankings to get them into the Road to Gold (RTG) programme as soon as possible.
SRAM president Gerard Monteiro said the national body has been asked to devise a programme to prepare national players for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
SRAM is expected to present a programme proposal to the RTG board at the end of December or early January.
After years of campaigning, squash was finally accepted into the Olympic programme last month and will make its debut at LA2028.
"The immediate plan now is to go back and identify the players (to be selected) for this programme and work out a training plan as well as their path up the rankings," said Gerard after a meeting with the National Sports Council, the National Sports Institute and RTG representatives in Bukit Jalil today.
"We will identify four men and four women whom we will groomed until LA2028. This is to ensure that we are prepared should anything happen to any of the players.
"Currently, a player must be ranked in the top-10 in the world to be accepted into the RTG programme, that is one of the criteria.
"We thus have to make sure that players such as Ng Eain Yow, S. Sivasangari, Aifa and Aira Azman (sisters) are able to move up the rankings as soon as possible.
"Our aim is to first have them remain consistent in the top 20 before then cracking the top 10.
"We have to focus on upcoming tournaments from now until May. They will be competing in many tournaments."
Eain Yow is currently 20th in the men's rankings while Sivasangari is 32nd in the women's.
The duo won gold in their respective individual events at the Hangzhou Asian Games last month.
Aifa is the highest ranked Malaysian women's player at No 25 while Aira is 52nd.
RTG is an elite athlete preparation programme to provide top athletes the support to challenge for gold at the Paris Olympics, LA2028 and other major international tournaments.
In addition to sports science, competition exposure and coaching support, athletes under RTG also receive an additional allowance of RM3,000 a month.
