Under the rain that began in the afternoon, the performers displayed a variety of Indonesian martial arts movements.
Pencak silat is an Indonesian indigenous traditional martial arts, but its popularity has already spread across the world. It involves strikes, kicks, sweeping, and take down.
The 18th Asian Games 2018 was the first in which pencak silat was contested as a medal event, along with other kinds of martial arts like judo, wushu, taekwondo, or karate.
A total of 160 athletes from 16 nations competed in pencak silat at the 2018 Asian Games. They are Brunei Darussalam (4 athletes), East Timor (5), India (2), Indonesia (22), Iran (9), Japan(1), Kyrgyzstan (9), Laos (14), Malaysia (20), Nepal (1), Pakistan (5), Philippines (9), Singapore (16), Thailand (16), Uzbekistan (11), and Vietnam (16).
Indonesia was confirmed to be the overall champion, with a total of 14 gold and one bronze medals collected out of 16 pencak silat events contested during the Games.
Pencak silat also becomes a trending topic in many media, including social media, as Indonesian athlete Hanifan Yudani Kusumah hugged President Joko Widodo and the Chairman of the Board of Executives of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association, Prabowo Subianto, together after winning a gold medal on Wednesday (Aug 29).
The event is considered an amazing moment as Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto will run for presidency in April 2019.
The closing ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games was enlivened by a number Indonesian and Asian artists.
K-pop lovers could enjoy the performances of Super Junior and iKon. People also enjoyed Siddharth Slathia who sang the official theme song of Asian Games "Meraih Bintang" (literally means Reaching the Stars) in Indian version.
Editing by Libertina/Suharto
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Gusti Nur Cahya Aryani
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
