Indonesian Pesilat Wins Gold Medal At SEA Games 2021: Singapore Cheats A Lot

Pencak silat athletes Riska Hermawan (left) and Ririn Rinasih, won gold medals at the 2021 SEA Games. (Photo: Kemenpora/Bagus)

JAKARTA - Indonesian silat athletes, Riska Hermawan and Ririn Rinasih, contributed the only gold medal at the 2021 SEA Games. This pair became the best in the doubles event with a score of 9,955 points.

In the final, they defeated the hosts' representatives, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha/Nguyen Thi Huyen, who got 9,925 points.

This couple admitted, this gold medal was not achieved easily. The biggest difficulty they faced was against representatives of Singapore in the previous round, to be precise in the semifinals.

"It's not easy for us to get a gold medal. We have to go through various obstacles to get it, including starting from the preliminary, semifinal and final," he said, as reported by the official website of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

"Especially when we met in the semifinals with Singapore, which in our opinion, Singapore cheated a lot. So from there, we motivated ourselves to fight for the gold medal again," he continued.

Ririn said he did not expect to be able to present a gold medal for Indonesia. She managed to improve her achievements at the 2019 SEA Games. At that time, Ririn got a bronze medal.

"Indeed, since last night (before the match) I was just praying," said Ririn.

Just like Ririn, Riska did not expect to be able to bring home a gold medal. He managed to match the achievements of his father, Cece Hermanan, who won the SEA Games gold medal in 1997.

"I dedicate this gold to my father and also to Indonesia," he said.