FILE – Filipino athlete Mary Francine Padios wins silver medal at the 30th SEA Games Women’s Pencak Silat Tunggal in Subic, Zambales on Tuesday, December 3, 2019. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — The hard part of Mary Francine Padios’s goal of being an athlete was not winning a medal.
The 19-year-old Padios has proven himself in his sport, pencak silat. She is currently a Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in her event and a bronze finisher at the 2022 World Pencak Silat Championships held in Malacca, Malaysia, in August.
But in addition to winning tournaments and performing for crowds, Padios wants pencak silat to erase its opacity and rise to the level of mainstream sports.
“More than competing and winning medals, I wanted to help boost the popularity of our sport,” said Padios after witnessing action in the Seni (arts) women’s singles event in the early part of the year. The 8th Women’s Martial Arts Festival on Saturday.
Indonesian martial arts has several sub-sects but is generally a fighting style where athletes can use every part of the body to attack any part of the body. The sport uses grappling, strikes, throws and even weapons and also has its formal competitions.
Seni has two weapons – a knife and a stick – and a bare hand, where the power and speed of performing combat moves such as punches and kicks will be measured according to an artistic process.
“Pencak silat is very unique and very different. It is not an offensive sport and focuses more on your defense. You’ll earn more points through defense,” Padios said on the opening day of the six-day festival for women in 11 combat sports.
Each Seni participant has three minutes to perform without exceeding the time limit, and unlike other formal events in combat sport, pencak silat artists are prohibited from shouting while performing the rule. show on the carpet.
More than 600 female athletes, coaches and officials gathered at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum to attend the opening ceremony of the first major multi-sport event organized by the Philippine Sports Commission since the pandemic. INQ
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