The Pencak Silat Federation of the UK (PSF UK) sent a small team to participate in the Open French Championships held from1-2 February 2003. This was the 9th Open French Championships organised and hosted by the Association Pencak Silat France (APSF) with the support of the Indonesian Embassy in Paris and the Council of the village of Savigny-sur-Orge.
The guests of honour included Bapak Eddie Nalapraya, President of the International Pencak Silat Federation (PERSILAT), Bapak Rachmat Gobel, Treasurer of the Indonesian Pencak silat Federation (Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia (IPSI) and His Excellency Bapak A. Silalahi, Ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia to France. Also attending as guests of honour were a representative from the Embassy of Singapore to France, and Jean Maraudon, the Deputy Mayor of Savigny-sur-Orge.
Competitors from 6 European countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK) and from 1 Asian country (Singapore) took part in the Silat Olahraga championships.
A team of Silat practitioners (pesilat) from IPSI attended the Championships and gave a performance of different Silat styles during the opening ceremony. Between the Silat demonstrations there were performances of Indonesian Dance, which had been organised by the Cultural Department of the Embassy of Indonesia in France.
Jason Davis from the UK fought against Maurits Krug from the Netherlands in Class G. This category had the largest number of competitors and Jason performed well in the first round. However, his confidence was affected when Maurits managed to take him down, and he lost the overall fight to his more experienced opponent. Jason and other competitors found that the type of mat used for the competition gave them problems with stability, making it harder to stay on their feed during take-down attempts.
The next fight for a UK competitor was between Irfan Alrashid and Christian Rechsteiner from Portugal in Class I. Irfan fought well and performed a skillfully executed scissor kick bringing his opponent down. The Portuguese pesilat, injured his leg in the fall but continued with the fight. Irfan managed to execute further combination techniques and take-downs during the second and third round and won the fight and went on to the finals.
Despite his injury and against the advise of the medics, Irfan insisted on fighting in the finals. His fight was against a much heavier opponent who had been put into Class I due to the lack of competitors in the Open Class category. Irfan fought well against Bauke van Houten from the Netherlands, and scored quite a number of points. However, towards the end of the first round, the referee (Wasit) stopped the fight to confer with the Wasit Juri as to whether or not to continue. It was during this break that the UK coach threw the towel into the ring to indicate that the UK was forfeiting the fight. Due to his injury Irfan was unable to continue, but is still the first PSF UK competitor to bring home a silver medal.
The overall standard of competition was fair and there was a real spirit of friendship and brotherhood amongst the pesilat from the different countries.
After the conclusion of the finals, the competitors presented themselves in category groups rather than by country as requested by the Organising Committee. Amongst the delegates asked to present the winner's medals were Bapak Eddie Nalapraya (IPSI/PERSILAT), Bapak Gambiro Gunawan (IPSI), Eric Chatellier (President of the APSF), Dr Hiltrud Cordes (President of the PSUD), George Frederiksz (President of the NSPB), and Karin Langle and Tony Shergill of the PSF UK.
With a total of 6 medals (4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze) the team from the Netherlands won the Gold Cup. The team from Singapore came second (1 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze), followed by Portugal (3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze).
The full results of the Open French Championships can be found here.
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