LET’S PLAY FAIR
Pesaka to ensure quality of judging is high and transparent
FOLLOWING an incident at l ast year’s KL Sea Games, the Malaysian National Silat Federation (PESAKA) hope that Indonesia, hosts of the Asian Games in August, will play it fair.
PESAKA hope Indonesia will adopt fair judging in silat events.
At the Sea Games last August, Indonesia had accused Malaysia of cheating after national duo Taqiyuddin Hamid and Rosli Mohd Sharif won gold in the men’s artistic doubles.
Indonesia team manager Edhy Prabowo had then claimed that the two Malaysians were awarded an unfairly high score.
Pesaka general manager Datuk Osman Nok hopes that the controversy of the KL Sea Games will not surface in the Indonesia Asian Games.
He stressed that P es aka president Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Tan Sri Omardin is working on ensuring that the judging will go smoothly.
“We are concerned... Pesaka will deal directly with the International Pencak Silat Federation in Jakarta to ensure the quality of judging is high and transparent,” said Osman, who added that Megat Zulkarnain had attended a meeting in Jakarta over the matter.
Pesaka, who have named 22 silat exponents for the Asian Games, will be banking on last August’s Sea Games gold and silver medallists to win gold medals.
Osman said of the 22 exponents listed, half of those comprised Sea Games medallists. Among them are world champion Mohd Al Jufferi Jamari, Razak Ghazali, Muhammad Faizul Nasir, Mohd Fauzi Khalid and Siti Rahmah Nasir.
Osman said Pesaka have not set a gold medal target for the Asian Games but are optimistic of winning three or four gold medals.