Silat: Singapore top SEA Championships with 11 golds

Nadhrah Sahrin's gold medal was one of 11 won by Singapore's pencak silat exponents at the end of the three-day competition. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

SINGAPORE - Nadhrah Sahrin could feel the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes on her and hear little except the roar of spectators from the stands.

Crucially, the teenager was able to keep her attention on her rival in the women's Class A (45-50kg) tanding final at the 8th South-east Asia (SEA) Pencak Silat Championships at the OCBC Arena on Sunday (Feb 27) evening.

Holding a narrow three-point lead over Malaysian rival Nor Farah Mazlan as they started the third and final round of their bout, Nadhrah managed to drop her opponent to the mat thrice in two minutes, to clinch a 21-10 win and her first gold medal at the regional competition.

"I felt very nervous because... A lot of people were watching on and I could not control my thoughts and feelings to focus on the match.

"People who know me know I don't show it on my face, but there is a lot going inside of me," Nadhrah told ST later sheepishly.

In the end the 17-year-old Republic Polytechnic student credited her background in taekwondo - she practised the South Korean martial art in primary school before switching to silat aged nine - for her late flourish.

Nadhrah's gold medal was one of 11 won by Singapore's pencak silat exponents as they finished the top nation at the end of the three-day competition, which was attended by exponents and officials from five countries, as well as invited guests.

Singapore's tally (11 gold, nine silvers, five bronzes) saw them finish ahead of Vietnam (9-2-3), Indonesia (3-3-3), Malaysia (2-6-4) and Thailand (0-1-3).

Yet Sheik Alau'ddin, chief executive officer of the Singapore Silat Federation (Persisi) felt his charges had much more room for improvement.

"Individually, we have to work with them and relook, maybe our strategy... in terms of coaching," said the two-time former world champion and three-time SEA Games champion.

Sheik said he was pleased to see Nadhrah prove her mettle in her first major competition, and said that he hoped the Singapore National Olympic Council's (SNOC) appeals committee would give her and others the green light for the Hanoi SEA Games in May.

Due to an absence of results in the past two years owing to the pandemic, as well as only a small number of weight categories being contested at the previous Games in the Philippines, only three Singaporean exponents were given the nod for Hanoi when the SNOC released its preliminary list last week.

The SEA Championships were also the first major stage for silat's new rules, passed a year ago, which allow exponents more leniency on tugging at the opponents' uniforms as they look to land punches and kicks to score points. Sheik previously suggested the changes could change the dynamics of many matches and approaches of many athletes.

But his son, three-time world champion Sheik Farhan, disagreed.

"New rules, same game, I would say," said the 24-year-old, after his win over Vietnam's Nguyen Van Tri in the men's Class J (90-95kg) final earned him his third SEA Championships gold medal following wins in 2015 and 2017.

"There has always been these sort of pulling going on, except it didn't hold much meaning. The only difference now is I guess you have to be more alert."

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