Students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) has earned another achievement on an international level, this time from the pencak silat branch of sports. Three UMY students won the gold medal for Men’s Hand-to-Hand Doubles and the silver medal for Women’s Hand-to-Hand Singles at the first Tapak Suci World Championship in Solo, Central Java on September 2nd to September 5th 2019. The championship, which was held to celebrate the 48th Muktamar Muhammadiyah and the inclusion of Pencak Silat to 2020 Olympics was attended by 547 athletes from 14 countries.
Rector of UMY Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, M.P congratulated and thanked Panji Nugroho (English Language Education Department), Aldi Hendarsyah (International Relations Department) and Fanny Periamaya Utami (Civic Engineering Department) for earning the title under their alma mater’s name on an international level through a sport of the Nation.
“I would like to congratulate all of you who have done your best and was rewarded with what you deserved. With those victories, you represent both yourself and UMY,” He stated during the welcoming ceremony in the A.R. Fachrudin A building of UMY Central Campus on Monday (9/9).
Gunawan stated his support for the activities of Tapak Suci UMY to develop even more. To that end, he plans on building a martial arts facility building that can help the martial arts-based Student Activity Units UKM). “In the future, UMY plans on constructing a new building that can be used by the martial arts UKM for training. Everything must be prepared to succeed,” he added.
At the same time, the leader of Tapak Suci UMY and gold medal winner Panji Nugroho explained that the preparations they made several weeks ago included movement choreography, physical training, and other activities. Because of that, they achieved the best results and contributed to Tapak Suci of Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY)’s victory as Second General Champion.
“The choreography we performed on the competition was the result of our training weeks-long training. However, we did it to get the best results for UMY and the DIY contingent,” he stated.
Panji also stated that this experience can hopefully inspire other members of Tapak Suci UMY in the future. He is committed to increasing the quality of its members so they can achieve higher things and give prestige to the campus. For that, the training regiments must be consistent and high-quality. “This achievement can hopefully inspire us to reach higher heights,” he added.
The participants of this world championship hailed from different countries around the world including Algeria, Timor Leste, Singapore, Egypt, Thailand, Pakistan, Uganda, Palestine, and Indonesia. The categories included 18 sports categories (11 men’s and 7 women’s) and 16 arts categories (8 men’s, 7 women’s, and 1 groups). (ak)
