Singapore clinches 4 gold medals at 19th World Pencak Silat Championships

Team Singapore clinched four gold medals at the 19th World Pencak Silat Championships which took place in Melaka, Malaysia, from Jul 27 to 31.

The biennial competition, which makes its return this year following a four year hiatus, featured over 500 competitors from 40 countries.

Two of the four gold medals were won last Friday (Jul 29), courtesy of Iqbal Abdul Rahman in the male artistic tunggal (singles), as well as female artistic trio Amirah Sahrin, Iffah Batrisyia Noh, and Nur Ashikin Zulkifli in the artistic female regu (trio).

In the finals, Iqbal scored 9.970 to beat Malaysia’s Luqman Bin Maji, while the Singapore female trio scored 9.950 to beat their Vietnamese opponents in the finals.

Iqbal, whose victory marked his second world title, previously won his first title and the gold medal for Singapore in the 2018 edition of the competition. He also won the gold medal at the recent 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

On the final day of the competition, Sheik Farhan Sheik Alau’ddin beat Indonesia’s Rangga Andika in the Class J (90-95kg) category of the male tanding (match) final via disqualification to earn Singapore’s third gold medal and pick up his fourth world title. 

His previous world titles were earned in the 2015, 2016 and 2018 editions of the championships.

Newcomer Aniq ‘Asri Yazid picked up Singapore’s fourth gold medal and his first world title on the same day after he beat reigning Class B (50-55kg) SEA Games Champion, Malaysia’s Khairi Adib Azhar, via technical knockout in the male tanding finals.

Five other Singaporean athletes were also in contention to earn a gold medal in the tanding weight category finals on the last day of the competition, but ended up securing silver medals instead following defeats in the finals.

Team Singapore wrapped up its campaign at the 19th World Pencak Silat Championships with a total of 17 medals – four gold, five silver and nine bronze.

Singapore’s best performance in the world championships was in 2018 on home soil, where its athletes clinched a total of seven gold, six silver and seven bronze medals.