The national pencak silat team are overall satisfied with their performance after returning with three bronze medals from the 1st Asian Pencak Silat Championships held in Singapore from April 14-17.

With a total of nine men and three women out to fly the flag for the Sultanate at the Bedok Sports Hall, Md Imanuddin Hj Ahmad won the first bronze for Brunei in the Men's Tunggal event followed by Siti Noradiyatul Amal Roslan bagging another in the Women's Tunggal event.

Last but not least, Freddy Ashrul Choo pocketed the only bronze medal in the Tanding event in Class I (85-90kg).

Besides Brunei, other countries that took part in the inaugural tournament were hosts Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Prior to departure for the competition, Suhartono had mentioned that some of the athletes were new and that the main purpose for attending the tournament was to get a taste of the strategy of other countries competing to get a heads-up before the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Indonesia later in the year.

"Our main aim was to prepare for the SEA games but just like us the other countries also sent half their squad (half national team and half youth team) for the tournament," said Suhartono, the national pencak silat coach, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

"Most of the teams were there for the same reason which was to observe others but the techniques showcased by the juniors were lower. No one wanted to leak out their strategies with the SEA Games so close," added the Indonesian.

"However, overall we're satisfied with our achievements. Now we're moving on to focusing on our techniques in training as previously we were working more on our physical fitness in preparations for the fitness test for the SEA Games as well," continued Suhartono.

Nonetheless, the national coach remains focus on his goal and that is to bring home at least two gold medals from the SEA Games.

"We managed only one gold medal at the last SEA Games but this year we're hoping to win at least two. Hopefully we would be able to achieve that and it would be a bonus if we can win more. We're definitely going to try our best," said Suhartono.

The team will be headed for more intensive training in the upcoming months with those taking part in the tanding events will train in Vietnam while those in the seni events will train in Indonesia for a month.

Courtesy from Brunei Times