Sugianto (yes, that is his full name) is a Pencak Silat artistic (seni) athlete from Indonesia. For almost the last decade, the has competed at major international Pencak Silat tournaments winning top medals in Tunggal, or artistic single category. At the peak of his career, he won the 2018 Asian Games held in Indonesia.
Sugianto was born in August 11, 1989 and grew up in South Jakarta, Indonesia. He loved martial arts films with such as Jet Lee and Jackie Chan , and also soap operas such as Wiro Sableng. After watching action films at a young age, a friend who had studied Silat for a while encouraged him to learn Pencak Silat, assuming that the Jakarta native would be naturally talented at the art.
“At first I was invited by a friend when I was in grade 4. I was invited to take part in pencak silat training or not. During school breaks, I liked to joke with my friends by playing an action like in an action film. Maybe it was from there that my friend saw that I had talent,” said Sugianto.
He practiced Pencak Silat at a young age but took a break when he was in junior high school. It started again when he began high school at SMA Bunda Kandung where the quality of Pencak Silat training was better. His parents were not happy with him practicing Pencak Silat because he had a history of typhus. “The first time I won, I gave the trophy to my parents. And praise to God, after that my parents allowed me to practice up until now,” Sugianto stated.
However, in high school, Sugianto began his competing in Pencak Silat tournaments. In an article written in Kompas, he discussed his reasoning for participating in tournaments. “Initially it was just for fun, because I enjoy martial arts. But when I was in high school, I started participating in tournaments. I used to participate in the fighting category,” said Sugianto. “In the fighting category, I kept loosing.” Sugianto mentions that they had to stop the match because he his inability in that category.
“When I was in high school, I participated in the extracurricular activities of pencak silat and basketball. But the more intense I participated in pencak silat. At first I was just a hobby, I didn’t think of being an athlete, just to take a belt,” said Sugianto in an article for Suara.com.
After that, Sugianto switched to the tunggal single category. Although initially doing it half-heartedly, Sugianto talent was immediately visible in that category. “I was initially half-hearted, but in this category when I first joined the tournament I immediately won a gold medal,” Sugianto revealed.
Sugianto, at 31 years old is now a father, enjoys the title of the first Asian games gold medalist in Pencak Silat tunggal (single) artistic category. He remains focused in his training for future competitions. “I want to continue until the age limit. The age limit in Pencak Silat is up to 35 years. After that, you can’t participate anymore,” he concluded.
