Date: 2019-12-30

From the 27th to 29th of December, the 5th Asian Pencak Silat Championship took place in Yanji, China. A total of 9 countries took part in the event. The team brought back 7 golds, 2 Silvers and 7 Bronze medals and clinching the 1st runner up position. Team Malaysia clinched 4 Gold, 8 Silver, 8 Bronze medals falling into the 2nd runner up position and Team Vietnam clinched 12 Gold, 9 Silver, 3 Bronze medals and emerged as the overall champion. Congrats to all teams and athletes. Details of the championship will be presented below.

Scoring & Secretariat Team
The scoring team has always lent a helping hand in running competitions. As this is the last competition of 2019, the scoring team also managed the secretariat duties ran the whole event. The event run smoothly and was successful thanks to the team! We hope to see them in more competitions in 2020.

Referee-Jury Refresher Course
One day before the start of the championship, a referee-jury refresher course was held. This was to make sure the officials were updated about the newest rules and for them to bring up and doubts that need clarification. This is also for the new officials from China to practice for one last time before officiating actual matches.

Press Conference
On the 23rd of December, the China Pencak Silat Federation held a press conference with Dr Sheik and the officials of the China Pencak Silat Federation to talk about the future of silat in China. While working hand-in-hand with the China Pencak Silat Federation, Dr. Sheik has big plans to advance and spread pencak silat widely in China in the years to come. The press conference ended rather successfully and we hope to see the advancements in China soon!

Opening and Closing Ceremony
As per tradition, the event starts and ends with an opening and closing ceremony. During the keris mandat procession of the opening ceremony, Dr Sheik gave a speech and even did some moves with the keris. Mr Zhen Cheng, organising chairman of the 5th Asian Pencak Silat Championship 2019 also gave a short speech to welcome the teams to Yanji, China. Dr Sheik also gave out certificates to the new officials from China after completing the course they took before the championship.

Artistic Category
As per usual, the artistic category was the first event that was contested. The artistic categories contested were: male and female single, male and female double and male and female team. Singapore athletes clinched gold medals from the artistic male team, male single and female single; silver medals from artistic male double and female team; and bronze medals from the artistic female double.

Match Category
The match category started after the artistic event ended. 4 of our athletes, Nurul Suhaila, Siti Khadijah, Sheik Farhan and Muhd Hazim managed to clinch the gold medal for their respective match categories, some fighting from the preliminary rounds all the way till the finals. 6 of our athletes: Sheik Ferdous, Abdul Raaziq, Adib Farhan, Amirah Sahrin, Muhd Riansyauqi and Syahirah Jeffrey clinched the bronze medals, putting their 100% in their respective match categories. Sheik Farhan was also nominated as the best male athlete of the championship! Congratulations to all the athletes!