David head of the class
by Andy McKenzie
Nicol David has written her name into the record books by becoming the youngest ever winner of a Women’s
International Squash Players’ Association (WISPA) event.
- The Malaysian schoolgirl beat Egypt’s Salma Shabana in the final of the Savcor Women’s Finnish Squash
Open in Mikkeli on February 28, at the tender age of 16.
- Shabana herself was the previous youngest winner of a WISPA event - the 1994 Finnish Open - when she was 18 years and
two months old.
- The world junior champion from Penang is in just her first month as a member of the WISPA and had to go through
qualifying in order to book a place at the tournament.
- Shabana, a relative veteran in comparison at 23 and also winner of the event in 1996, had no answer for David and went
down 9-1 9-0 9-5 in the final.
- David first burst onto the world scene in August 1997 when, as a 13-year-old, she reached the quarter-finals of the
Women’s World Junior U19 championship in Brazil.
- In 1999 she won the title in Antwerp, Belgium without losing a game and will still be young enough to defend her title
when it is next held in 2001.
- David, the current Asian senior champion, has also won the junior event and claimed gold at the Asian Games in
December 1998.
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