BRUNEI Darussalam national pencak athletes Anisah Najihah binti Abdullah, Nur Azimatunnaemah Simat and Qistina Athirah Zainal narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the 18th Asian Games by a single point in the women’s artistic team event at the Padepokan Taman Mini Indah Indonesia (TMII) in Jakarta yesterday.
The trio accumulated a total of 447 points- which is the same as fourth-placed Singapore- in the three-minute contest to finish in fifth place, a point shy of the bronze-winning mark of 448 points set by Thailand.
The women’s team event represented the country’s last shot of a historic Asian Games medal this year with all the athletes having already completed their matches which spanned 10 days of competition.
The result of the pencak silat team with a combined age of 63 among three exponents was the closest that the country has come to a medal since wushu exponent Basma Lachkar entered medal contention in the Women’s Taijiquan event on August 19.
Indonesia comprising Pramudita Yuristya, Lutfi Nurhasanah and Gina Tri Lestari clinched a 11th pencak silat gold medal at this year’s Asian Games while Vietnam’s Thi Thu Ha Nguyen, Thi Huyen Nguyen and Thu Binh Vuong settled for silver.
Malaysia and Laos finished in sixth and seventh.
