Three UNAIR Law Students Won National Pencak Silat Competition

Another proud achievement was made by the Faculty of Law, Universitas Airlangga (FH UNAIR) students. This time, it was the turn of Muhammad (2021), Rifky Hamdan Fatoni (2021), and Rully Ardika Ichsan (2021) to contribute achievements through the 2023 Banyuwangi Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI) pencak silat championship. Muhammad won 1st place in Men’s Class C Competition, Rifky won 2nd place in Men’s Class A, and Rully won 3rd place in Men’s A-Class.

The IPSI Banyuwangi Championship is a national-level competition held annually by IPSI Banyuwangi to compete for the Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora) trophy. The IPSI Banyuwangi Championship 2023 competition will be held on 7-9 March 2023 at the Tawang Alun Sports Hall, Banyuwangi. This competition was attended by 871 from all over Indonesia.

In an interview with FH News on Friday (10/3/2023), Muhammad explained their preparations for participating in the competition. They made preparations for approximately two months, from January – March 2023.

“As for the difficulties themselves, like students in general, it is difficult to share our time with lectures. The training is not optimal because it has to collide with lectures and assignments, especially since this semester we are taking a lot of justice courses and lots of practicum and observations,” said Muhammad.

Even so, they are very grateful to be champions. They hope to continue to excel and improve their techniques and abilities. Moreover, the current rules for pencak silat are pretty different from those in the past.

“We are very grateful that with the limited time between lectures and the minimal training schedule, we can still become champions,” said Rifky.

Muhammad also explained his reasons for pursuing the martial arts world until now. According to him, apart from learning self-defense and sports, pencak silat is also an authentic Indonesian culture that must be preserved. He also tries his best to achieve and make the campus proud, not only in terms of academics but also non-academic, like this martial arts sport.

The three admitted that they still wanted to achieve many things while pursuing the world of pencak silat. “There are many things that we want to achieve, and that will always be a separate motivation for us to continue to strive to excel in the field we are passionate about,” said Rifky.

In closing, Rully conveyed tips and tricks for other pencak silat athletes. He advised continuing to study and practice. Also, constantly upgrading abilities and skills, especially with new regulations, must be considered.

“We hope we can continue to excel, be useful for the society, and make UNAIR proud,” concluded Rully.