KUALA LUMPUR: Lobbying for the inclusion of silat in the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games has been intensified after the sport was dropped in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
The Malaysian National Silat Federation (Pesaka) president Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin (pix) said a consensus was reached during the Asian Silat Congress in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to include silat in the Asian Games programme.
“A new application to reinstate silat in the Asian Games has been done. The last time silat was included in the Asian Games programme was in 2018 when Indonesia hosted the games in Jakarta-Palembang before China decided to drop the sport in the Hangzhou edition.
“Groundwork and discussions are also being held with the Japan Pencak Silat Association (JPSA) while a number of initiatives have been taken by the Asian Pencak Silat Federation (APSIF) and agreed during the congress,” he said when met recently.
Megat Zulkarnain said among steps taken by APSIF include seeking the collective agreement from members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) like India, China, Japan, as well as South East Asean countries to collectively lobby for the reinstatement of silat in the Asian Games programme.
“There are positive signs at the APSIF level. The other positivity is the participation of ‘new powers of silat’ from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen and Iran can result in a favourable result. The response for the inclusion of silat among Asian countries is very promising,” he said.
At the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta-Palembang, the national silat squad failed to win any gold medals but came home with four silver and four bronze medals. -Bernama
