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World Pencak Silat Championships
Penang, Malaysia
14-21 December 2002

The event was attended by 20 countries and about 150 competitors from Asia, Europe, America and the Pacific and received extensive local news coverage. 

New Straites Times, 14 December 2002

The UK team was joined in Penang by Bapak Bambang Wasito Adi, Education and Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in London and Advisor to the PSF UK, who had been invited by PERSILAT and the PSF UK to attend the opening ceremony, the Championships and the half-term plenary meeting of the European Pencak Silat Federation (EPSF).

The PSF UK sent one of its largest teams to these competitions and entered the following competition categories: 

• Tanding (Olahraga) - male

• Jurus Tunggal (Single/Seni) - female & male categories

• Jurus Regu (Team/Seni) - female & male categories

On the day of the opening all participants and officials were invited to attend an 'Aidil Fitri Open House' Celebration at the Heritage Complex (Rumah P. Ramlee). The celebrations were also attended by the honoured guests, Tun Dato' Seri Haji Abdul Rahman Bin Haji Abbas, the Governor of Penang together with his wife, and YAB Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, the Chief Minister of Penang and his wife.

In the evening, all teams attended the opening ceremony at the Penang International Sports Arena. The ceremony commenced with the arrival of Dato’ Seri Abdullah Haji Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The British Team at the Opening Ceremony

As part of the opening ceremony the Team Managers of each participating country were presented with certificates of attendance and a miniature ferry boat by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

This was followed by simultaneous Silat demonstrations by about 120 exponents of different Silat schools.

The first fight (Tanding competition) for the UK took place on the second day of the competition and was between Arash Adami and Alwie Jidin from Malaysia (Class F). Arash, a newcomer to Pencak Silat competitions, fought well in the first round and scored points for well-executed techniques and pola langka (footwork). However, in the subsequent rounds his opponent scored more points and Arash lost the overall fight to his much more experienced opponent.

Arash Adami (UK) vs Alwin Jidin (Malaysia)

In the evening the first rounds of the Seni competitions took place. The first category performed was Jurus Tunggal and the UK contender, Adrien Kardar, another newcomer to international competitions, had to compete against Indonesia, Singapore, Netherlands and Austria. Adrien was rather nervous and was unable to perform to his usual high standard, and was not awarded sufficient points to get through to the second round. 

Jurus Tunggal (male category)

The second event of the evening was the first round in the female category of the Jurus Regu (Team/Seni) and the UK participants (Hannah Alrashid, Anita Khorugdharry and Afsaneh Arghianey) had drawn Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand as their competitors. With such expert opponents the young UK team lacked the experience to beat the other contenders on points to get through to the next round.

 
From Left: Anita, Hannah, Afsaneh

The final event of the day was the female category of the Ganda (Double/Seni) competitons.

The following day Arif Kokkoz was the first of the British fighters to enter the Tanding competition, competing in category H. He had drawn Ronald Roll Vink from the Netherlands as his opponent and unfortunately lost his fight.

Almost at the same time Tony Shergill fought against Mohd Arif Kamis from Malaysia and, despite a very promising start in the first round, he also lost the overall fight against an opponent who went on to win the Gold medal for the open category.

The evening was set aside for the competitons in the female category of the Jurus Tunggal and the male categories of the Jurus Regu and Jurus Ganda. 

Anita Khorugdharry from the UK, performing in her first international championships, was competing in the Jurus Tunggal against contenders from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Despite her excellent efforts she did not secure sufficient points to go through to the finals.

Jurus Tunggal (female category)

The PSF UK's male Jurus Regu team, Shah Haque and brothers Sean and Adrien Kardar had to compete against opponents from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam and, though they gave a spirited performance, they failed to go through to the semii-final.

The next day, the UK team enjoyed watching the continuation of the Tanding competitions. In the evening all participants attended a State Dinner held in honour of the Chief Minister of Penang.

The last fight for the UK was in category F between Jason Davis and Mohd Zuber Ismail from Malaysia. Jason lacked the international exposure and experience to tackle his opponent more effectively. 

As his weight category had few competitors, Jason was able  to take home a bronze medal for the PSF UK.

During the afternoon of the last day of the Championships the finals of the Seni competitions took place and the following countries won in their respective categories:

With a total of 23 medals (12 gold, 8 silver and 3 bronze) the team from Vietnam won the 'Best team' Trophy for the first time, being followed by Indonesia (6 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze) and the host country Malaysia (3 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze). 

The full results of the 12th World Pencak Silat Championships can be found here.

Farewell speeches,  entertainment and a brass band concluded the Championships.

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(c) Pencak Silat Federation of the UK - last modified 05/06/2003