Singapore bag three golds at World Pencak Silat C'ships

Moments after beating Indonesia’s Shafril Asad Habibullah 19-10 to claim his second world title on Dec 22, national silat exponent Sheik Ferdous Sheik Alau’ddin glanced at the TV camera and shrugged.

It was an understated yet confident gesture from an athlete who had just ended a six-year wait to reclaim gold on the world stage.

Back competing in his preferred weight category, the Class I (85-90kg) division, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, the 28-year-old was out to prove his detractors wrong.

Ferdous said: “The drive is different. The first time was like, ‘I want to win it in Singapore, this is my first time that I’m going to be a world champion’.

“The desire to win is the same, if not greater. I wanted to prove a point to myself and people who doubted me.

“It was to tell them that I am at this level and the difference this time is that this was not on home ground, so there’s no reason to say I had home-ground advantage or advantage of any form.”

Ferdous’ faith in himself was cultivated over a tough few years that were riddled with personal setbacks.

In 2022, national coach Mochammad Ichsan Nur Romadhon died in a car accident in Bali. A year later, Ferdous was fined $8,000 and disqualified from driving for 48 months for drink driving.

Last November, his father Sheik Alau’ddin Yacoob Marican was arrested for suspected criminal breach of trust. The former Singapore Silat Federation (SSF) chief executive is assisting the Commercial Affairs Department with investigations into “financial irregularities” in the association.

Ferdous said: “Those tough times helped me focus on, find and build myself. During those tough times, it felt at times lonely.

“I did have my pillar of support and all, but it’s within that I had to find myself, to believe in myself.”

His victory at the World Pencak Silat Championships capped a successful campaign for the Singapore contingent in Abu Dhabi as they clinched three golds and 13 bronzes.

The other two champions were Ferdous’ brother Sheik Farhan and Muhammad Iqbal Abdul Rahman, who won the Class J (90-95kg) and senior tunggal male titles respectively.

Farhan captured his fifth title, after also winning in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2022, with a 27-13 victory over Indonesia’s Hendri Fardli. Iqbal outscored Hendri’s compatriot Syarief Hidayatullah Suhaimi 9.555-9.550 for his third crown.

Farhan, 26, said: “The preparation itself is more tiring than the competition because the competition is short and the preparation is very long and it engages you physicially and mentally.

“It’s months or more worth of process, so finally after finishing, I’ve won and yes, that’s the happy part but relieved because the work I’ve been doing has had its intended results and now I can relax for a while.”

 

The five-time world champion admitted that he hates losing, and can count the number of times that has happened since 2015 – five – with one hand, adding that he “didn’t want to make it two hands”.

He said: “I just want to keep going for every competition. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small or big one, I’m not going into it thinking it’s okay if I don’t win gold. It’s a process I’ve had since I was young and I’ve been building on it as I grow.”

Amid a turbulent year for the sport in Singapore, Iqbal, 31, was glad that things went well for the contingent despite the challenges they faced.

He said: “I’m happy I could defend my title, it means quite a lot coming into this. It wasn’t easy for us to prepare for these games because there were a lot of changes within the federation, it was a tricky situation for all of us.

“As an athlete, it didn’t really affect us that much but it was more the psychological thinking towards competitions – with the changes we didn’t know if there would be much support, but we were focused on training and preparing ourselves.

“Eventually all of us were well prepared and everything turned out great.”

The Republic also claimed nine golds, three silvers and eight bronzes at the Junior World Championships, which were held at the same venue.