Open
Belgian Championships
Brasschaat, near Antwerp, Belgium
26-28 April 2002
The Open Belgian Championships were organised and hosted by the Belgian Pencak Silat Bond (BPSB) who also celebrated their 10th anniversary.
The guests of honour included H.E. Bapak Sulaiman Abdulmanan, Ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia to Belgium and Bapak Eddie Nalapraya, President of PERSILAT. Also attending as guests of honour were Bapak Sakti from IPSI (Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia) and Dato Dr. Ibrahim Saad, Vice President of PESAKA (Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia).
Competitors from 8 European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K.) took part in the championships, and the Pencak Silat Federations of Singapore (PERSISI), Malaysia (PESAKA) and Indonesia (IPSI) also sent teams following a special invitation from the BPSB. The presence of the teams from Asia made the competition more challenging for the fighters from Europe.
The British team arrived in Antwerp on Friday afternoon and went straight to the sports hall for registration, medical check-up and weighing in.
The Opening Ceremony was held in the evening and included gamelan music, Indonesian dances and Silat demonstrations by members of the Belgium, German and British teams.
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The competition started on Saturday morning and the first fight for the UK took place late afternoon.
Irfan Alrashid, in his first competition, won his fight against Peter Sonnemans from the Netherlands . Due to an injury during this fight, he could not continue in his second bout against Eddy Clements, also from the Netherlands, who went on to win Gold. Despite this setback, Irfan still took home bronze.
Gold: Eddy Clements (NL), Silver: Jan
De Backer (B),
Bronze: Irfan Alrashid (UK) & Mohd Imran Adul Rachman
(Singapore)
Arif Kokkoz put up a good fight in his class (85-90kg) but was defeated on points by his more experienced opponent, Klaas Dupont from the Netherlands. Arif was still able to take home a bronze medal.
Gold: Mohd Azrin Abdul Malek
(Malaysia), Silver: Klaas Dupont (NL)
Bronze: Metin Erdogan (Turkey) & Arif Kokkoz (UK)
Our third fighter, Jason Davis was less lucky; because the organisers had changed the timetable and put forward his fight against Koen Van Nulland from the Netherlandes by nearly five hours without informing the British Team, he missed his fight and had to content himself with watching the competition.
from
left: Arif, Irfan, Sean, Jason, Adrien, Tony
With a total of six medals (4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze) the team from Singapore won the “Best team” Award and Ibrahim Abdul Kadir from their team won the trophy for best pesilat.
Singapore wins "Best Team"
Award
The full results of the Open Belgian Championships can be found here.
(c) Pencak Silat Federation of the UK - last modified 14/03/2003