Malaysia finish silat world meet with three gold medals
THE STAR
PETALING JAYA: Four finals, three gold medals. That sums up Malaysia’s achievement on the final day of the World Silat Championships in Bali, Indonesia.
Mohd Al-Jufferi Jamari shone brightest when he nailed his third world title by winning the Putra E class in style yesterday. The Pahang exponent was also the champion in 2014 and 2015.
The 24-year-old, last year’s Sportsman of the Year, put up a solid show to outclass Thailand’s Koibehem Kubawa 5-0 in the final.
The other two Malaysian gold medallist at the meet were Razak Ghazali and Siti Rahmah Mohd Nasir.
Razak edged Iqbal Chandra of Indonesia 3-2 in a thrilling Putra D class final while Siti outclassed Nguyen Thi Anh of Vietnam 5-0 in the Putri E class final.
Ummi Syazana failed to make it four wins for Malaysia when she lost 3-2 to Wendy Peiters of Belgium in the Putri F class final yesterday.
Al-Jufferi and Rahmah are in the Podium Programme while Razak and Ummi are Kita Juara athletes.
National team manager Datuk Osman Nok was delighted that the team maintained their reputation as one of the top three silat teams in the world.
Malaysia finished the championships in third place overall with a 3-3-3 medal haul. Hosts Indonesia (12-4-4) top the table while Vietnam finished second (4-7-8).
“It is the same as what we did in Phuket last year,” said Osman, who is also the Malaysian National Silat Federation (Pesaka) honorary secretary.