Pipiet Kamilia cautiously steps towards her opponent at the Pencak Silat finals at the 2021 national sports event (PON) in the Indonesian island of Papua. Ivhon Eritetena, a native Paupan for Class D Female category, was the crowd favorite. Seconds after the match began, Ivhon hits Pipiet in the face, signaling to Pipiet (who was favored to win the match) that Ivhon will not go down without a fight. Pipiet smiles and stands back up, but is quickly slammed to the ground by her opponent. The crowd cheers wildly for Ivhon and Pipiet realizes she needs to turn up the heat. During the match, Ivhon strikes her several more times in the face, yet Pipiet maintains her composure and relies on her years of experience in the sport.
Ivhon is relentless and pressures Pipiet throughout the first and second rounds. Pipiet manages to get some solid take downs and to connect with some well placed kicks. Ivhon maintains pressure till the third that her chest guard almost falls off. Yet Pipiet finishes the match well ahead in points and becomes the national PON XX champion in Pencak Silat.
Unlike other Pencak Silat athletes (including her husband Hanifan Yudani Kusumah), Pipiet did not come from a family of Silat practitioners or famous sport athletes. “Initially I entered Silat when I was in elementary school, and that’s because I was a victim of bullying at school, often bullied by friends. When I came home from school I often cried and complained to my father”, recalled Pipit.
Her father sent Pipiet to a martial arts school (Nusantara Pencak Silat School or KSP) near her house. His hope was that his daughter would become more confident and independent in school. Gradually, that confidence turned into talent.
Pipiet quickly fell in love with Pencak Silat and began earning various achievements both at national and international levels. She found Pencak Silat very friendly to women and that she could use the sport to prove that women were able to achieve success and glory for their country. “In Pencak Silat it doesn’t look at men or women, and there is an element of kinship” she stated. “We invite all women who use the hijab to be more confident and not hesitate to show their talents to the surrounding community and even to the whole world. Hijab is not an obstacle to stay active and achieve,” concluded Pipiet.
A graduate of the Jakarta State University (UNJ) with a field of Sport Science, Pipiet used her knowledge of sport science to improve her performance in Silat sport. She managed to win several international Gold medals including Gold at the 2018 Asian Games 2018, the largest multi-sport game after the Olympics.
After her win at the Asian Games, she was proposed to by the well-known Pencak Silat athlete Hanifan directly on a television station. A few months after that in 2019, they were married. The wedding was attended by Indonesian President Jokowi and the First Lady.
However, Pipiet’s career has not always been smooth. In 2016 she suffered a knee injury which required her to withdraw from Pencak Silat activities for 5 months. After recovering from her injury she returned to practice and made various achievements such as PON Jabar 2016 (gold), World Pencak Silat Championship 2016 (bronze), Belgium Open 2017 (gold), SEA Games Malaysia 2017 (silver), 3rd Asian Championship South Korea 2017 (gold) and Best Female Athlete Asian 2017 and Malaysia Open 2017.
Pipiet continues to train in Pencak Silat and recently attended national tryouts (Seleknas) for 2022 SEA Games in Vietnam and 2022 Pencak Silat World Championships in Kuala Lumpur. Although her opponent Atifa Fismawati from Jateng (Central Java) was leading 23-9, she managed to win due to her opponent throwing in the towel due to an injury.
Pipiet Kamila is active on social media, often posting short comical posts with her husband on Instagram and TikTok.
