Siblings Muktadir Niji and Khaaliqa Nimji will fly the Kenyan flag in Birmingham during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham starting on the 27th of July to the 8th of August 2022.
Khaaliqa says they have been training hard since the beginning of the year and are glad that they picked the two available tickets in Squash. Birmingham will be tough because of facing world class athletes in the competition.
“I think my brother Muqtadir, since he is playing in Birmingham, he is playing with the world class athletes and he is training with them every day. So I think his levels have gone up quite a bit,” said Khaaliqa.
She added that “for us we have also been playing with each other (in Kenya) and I have had the opportunity to play with men, so I think that has also upped my game quite a bit.”
Khaaliqa has played at three Commonwealth games, starting with the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham while 12 years old.
“This time I have a chance of probably getting into the medal bracket. Obviously when I was 12 I was too young, that was more of experience and exposure. But now that I am 24, I feel I can do a lot better,” she observed.
The team has been training, mixing a lot of fitness training with gym and court sessions of a lot of games. The team has been training under coach Prince Mukuka Jr, a former eight-time national champion and Kenya number one squash player. Mukuka is working with coach Gakuo Ndirangu.