Nicole David, fired up from retaining her world open squash title, leads Malaysia's quest for gold at the Asian Games.

The 23-year-old from Penang suffered a surprise defeat to Hong Kong's Rebecca Chiu in the 2002 Asian Games final and missed out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March.

Since then, however, the world number one has dominated the women's squash circuit, winning six consecutive titles.

On Sunday, she became only the fourth woman to successfully defend the world open title, beating Commonwealth champion Natalie Grinham of Australia in an exhausting, 96-minute final in Belfast.

Her main challenge in Doha is likely to come from compatriot Sharon Wee.

Malaysia are also hoping for gold in the men's badminton team event and targeting medals in the men's and women's doubles.

Lee Chong Wei is seeded second in Doha's singles event but will have to play flawlessly if he is to overcome an expected challenge from the powerful Chinese.

The pairings of Lin Woon Fui and Fairuzizuan Tazari, and Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong are hopeful of medals in the men's doubles while Wong Pei Tyy and Chin Eei Hui hope to win Malaysia's first medal in the women's doubles since 1970.

Malaysia's karate coach P. Arivalagan has set an ambitious target of eight medals at the Games.

The Malaysians returned from Pusan four years ago with two gold medals, both won by their women.

Malaysia also have a strong tenpin bowling squad with the men's team, led by the experienced Ben Heng and Aaron Kong, and the women's team both confident of medals.

Pursuit cycling could also be a source of medals after the national team of Akmal Amrun, Thum Weng Kin, Hariff Saleh and Jasmin Ruslan were among the fastest Asian sides at the UCI World Cup in Sydney earlier this month.