Indonesia no longer the powerhouse of its own sport

Like basketball to the American and golf to the English, pencak silat has become an international sport, although Indonesia is no longer the sole powerhouse of its own traditional martial art.

The pencak silat competition at the 26th South East Asian Games was scheduled to start Saturday at the Padepokan Pencak Silat TMII, in East Jakarta with 10 countries, including Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines and Timor Leste set to compete for 18 gold medals.

“The three strong competitors are Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia,” said Suhartono, a former Indonesian pencak silat champion who is now Brunei Darussalam’s head coach.

“I could predict the strength of the nine competing countries, but it looks like Indonesia is the most prepared team, as they have trained three months in China and this time their training development seems successful,” Suhartono said.

Suhartono claims that he once trained most of the athletes competing in the current SEA Games. Suhartono has been correct in the history of his coaching.

Suhartono, who began coaching the Vietnamese squad in 1995, has helped the country to reach the top of international competition by snatching three gold medals at the 1999 SEA Games in Bandar Seri Begawan, defeating Indonesia, bringing home seven golds at the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur and sweeping seven golds at home when the games were held in Vietnam in 2003.

Suhartono also helped the Philippines win one gold in the 2005 Games in Manila and led the Thais to win four golds in the 2007 SEA Games

Suhartono explained that the strengths of other competing countries were scattered, for example, Myanmar, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam, which each might earn a medal in one category. As a team, however, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia were still superior, he said.

The coach said the host country needed to pay additional attention because even though the tough Vietnamese team may be sending many junior fighters, they still have four seniors who each aim to win gold.

Indonesia’s pencak silat national camp manager Edhy Prabowo, however, said that he believes in his pencak silat fighters, who are ready for all opponents.

“We have trained for one-and-a-half years. The country has spent a lot of money and resources, so we should not waste the chance. We should prove that our country is serious in winning the competition,” he said.

Pencak silat was initially introduced at the 1987 SEA Games in Jakarta. (rpt)