KUALA LUMPUR – Silat is looking to return to the Asian Games for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya edition, after getting dropped from Hangzhou 2022 which just took place in September.
National Silat Federation of Malaysia president (Pesaka) Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin said that an agreement has been reached to include the traditional Malay martial art into the list for the 2026 Asiad set to take place in Japan.
The consensus was reached at the Asian Silat Congress – which Megat attended – in Dubai, United Arab Emirates last month.
“The last time silat was in the Asian Games programme was at Jakarta-Palembang 2018 before Hangzhou 2022 removed it.
“A new application to include silat back into the programme to be contested at the Asian Games level has been initiated.
“We are working to convince the Japanese Silat Association to lobby for silat’s inclusion into the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Games besides other approaches which have been done by the Asian Pencak Silat Federation (Apsif),” he told reporters recently.
Megat added that other approaches utilised by Apsif included harnessing the voices of nations in the Olympic Council of Asia like India, China and Japan, apart from other Southeast Asian countries, in the effort to return silat to the Asian Games.
“We are lobbying hard right now and hopefully our effort will pay off with the inclusion of silat in the upcoming Asian Games.
“With the participation of new countries from the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen and Iran, AIPS is seeing early positive signs.
“This shows the spread of the sport within Asian countries is strong which will support inclusion into the next Asiad,” he added. – December 18, 2023