The Pencak Silat National Team Arrives in Indonesia After Becoming the Overall Champion at the 2023 SEA Games

– The Indonesian Pencak Silat National Team was crowned the overall champion of the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia after earning 9 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze.

The head coach of the Indonesian pencak silat national team, Indro Catur Haryono, said that initially his team only targeted 5 gold medals at the SEA Games in Cambodia.

“Every presentation on the Kemenpora team, KOI, I always say that Indonesia won at least 5 gold medals, it turns out that the results exceeded expectations because we were able to win 9 gold and that’s what we are grateful for,” said Catur upon his arrival at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Thursday (11/5/2023 ) Evening.

Catur also recounted several incidents in the arena of the Cambodian SEA Games martial arts competition. One of them was experienced by athlete Safira Dwi Meilani who injured her shoulder.

“During the match, Safira already had a sore shoulder, but because she fought so hard from the first, second, third round she won points,” he said.

In fact, said Catur, Safira was declared defeated which sparked protest after protest from both sides. At that time Indonesia was far ahead of the opponent with a score of 43-61.

However, with 18 seconds left, the match was suddenly stopped and the victory went to the Vietnamese fighter.

“When there was an incident, the referee suddenly stated that Safira was deemed unable to put up a fight, in the end the referee issued three index fingers and considered the match over,” he said.

“As a coach, I protested because he had such rights, but he protested No responded to. After no response, we made an official protest, the manager took the blank, we submitted it, it turned out that the result was that Safira won because there was no reason not to win Safira,” he explained.

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