Malaysia's golden girl, 22 years old Nicol David's victory (8-10 9-2 9-6 9-7 ) over Rachael Grinham of Australia on Sunday made her the first Asian woman to win the World Open squash title in Hong Kong. Nicol beat reigning World number one, Dutch star Vanessa Atkinson during the semis.
Look at her exploits: The first home player to capture the Malaysian Open, the first Asian woman to win the British Open and the first Asian woman to become world number one. Actually she is not the World No One officially and will only get the title in January.
Anyway, as far as I know, she will the First Malaysian to be ranked a No 1 in any sport.
If anybody deserves a Datukship, it's Nicol. Anybody with me?
Others who blogged about her: Lucia and KG.
UPDATE:
The Malaysian Government announced yesterday that Nicol would be awarded RM20,000/ under the National Sports Council’s (NSC) reward scheme for athletes.
More rewards: Updated 9th Dec. 2005
A medium-cost apartment unit in Bukit Gambier, worth RM180,000, and RM30,000 in cash from the Penang state government.
Appointed as ambassador for healthy living and another apartment in the same housing project by the The Penang Development Corporation (PDC)
19 comments:
There was already a discussion on this on Lim Kit Siang's blog when she won in the UK.
The general consensus is that, yes, it's bloody unfair that Nicol does not get much official support, much less recognition, despite her overwhelmingly glorious achievements. Yet millions of ringgit are thrown at underachieving sports like football.
There were also people who smirked that Nicol is being snubbed because she wears comfortable attire, which happens to be revealing, which rub religious fanatics the wrong way. Not to mention that she is not Bumi.
It was also brought up that another "sportsman" (if you can even call him that), a Bumi, got a Datukship and a house for swimming across the English Channel. Incidentally, he did it in a laughable 23 hours, while Lennard Lee, another Malaysian, did it in a mere 9 hours one year later.
Badawi was gracious enough to take a photo with Lennard. But he was only awarded a.. certificate.
Also, the group that conquered Everest were also all but ignored. One of them was featured on TV lately, having been confined to bed because of injuries suffered during the ascent.
None of them were awarded much recognition either. AFAIK they were non-Bumi.
This is not necessarily racial, as AFAIK Misbun did not get a Datukship either. BUT he did get a few financial rewards. And Nicol seems to be a better sportsperson than him even at this age.
aye!
Never thought so much about the racial issues.. Nicol definitely deserve more regconition than she is having now.
Datukship is fair but nowadays I don't have not much respect for Datuk.. it is cheap.
btw she is not the first world no 1 from Malaysia, we still have badminton and bowling etc..
I'm with you.
If only that Datukship is more than telling people that "I'm rich" or "I'll be rich soon, anyway!"
But this is truely Malaysia Boleh :) Cheers!
POWER WOMAN!!
Jee : Badminton???? Gosh, I've given up all my hopes on this sport as well. Forever no finishing! But squash is something..Nicole is fuh!~
And Datuk or not, the best is..at least people would remember how good she is and how she made our country proud so lets not get into all these racial issues. It's just the way life is around the world, some get their deserved recognition, some don't and some don't deserve them.
As for the poor guy (the Everest guy) who was confined to bed, why not go directly to the person and give our donation (if we care so much) instead of just sitting here waiting for the government to assist them and then flame them for being racist when they don't help.
Perhaps another case of "Malaysia Boleh"
I'm with u , er robin and ah ok lah!
jee, what do you mean she is not world no. 1 in malaysia? tell us, which malaysians achieve the tittle world no. 1 in whatever sports.
i wouldn't want nicol to get a datukship as many of us know datukship is so cheap now. can be easily bought and people have no respect for datuk now. other more practical rewards would be better like a house.
Congrates to Nicol .. but obviously her evolutionary performances since the U12, U15, U18 and the British Open were NOT motivated by Datukship or mundane rewards from Malaysia. She went for the WORLD and got it. That is reward in itself, a self accomplishment that is priceless and cannot be measure by any other man-made awards!!
yay! girl power! go nicol! go malaysia! go asia!!!:)
what's she going to get this time? Two phone calls?
And APs, too.
Nah I don't think Nicol would accept these things. IMHO she's too good to be conferred a Datukship. In light of so many Datuks abusing their titles and committing crimes, not to mention paying their way into being conferred a datukship, sometimes it feels good to be on the other side - remain as enciks and puans. It seems like anybody with enough money can be a Datuk.
Today it was reported that Nicol will be awarded RM200,000. WOW!
A lot of interesting comments. However, I am not sure why people would always make any issue a racial issue.
A datukship is still something to look up to. A lot of Datuks I know, really derserve the honour.
Not 200,000 ringgit? She is really something... give me another life, I also cannot do what she is doing... salute...
Yeah nicol, making Malaysia shine!
i really hate it when people dont get the right fact and then putting all the blame on Bumis.Malik crossed the English Channel in 17hours and 30 minutes for a 58km distance while Lennard only did 33.6km in 9hours and 45 minutes.see the difference??
http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/archive.asp?y=2004&dt=0717&pub=utusan_malaysia&sec=sukan&pg=su_02.htm&arc=hive Plus Nicol was being sponsored by MSN for her training in overseas for a few times.She even won Olahragawati Kebangsaan 1999 and 2003.Talking about not getting recognition huh...trust me if i say i believe equality for each malaysian.but people like you are making this difficult..each race having the false and wrong perception about others...
Weblinks:
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_channel
2) http://www.channelswimming.net/
3) http://www.channelswimming.com/home.html
4) http://www.channelswimming.com/CS&PF%20solo.htm
From all the weblinks above, i could not find any information regarding the difference in distance covered by both Malik and Lennard. I believe they both started from Dover, England and finished at Cap Gris Nez, France.
I wonder where Utusan get their information from. Can someone provide more accurate information ?
Thanx in advance.
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