SEA Games: Singaporean silat world champ loses due to ‘poor refereeing’

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http://sg.sports.yahoo.com/news/sea-games-silat--singaporean-world-champ-loses-due-to-%E2%80%98poor-refereeing-040605072.html

He is a world champion and possibly Singapore’s most famous silat exponent in present times.

But Muhammad Shakir Juanda has faltered at regional level, never achieving higher than a silver medal at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Two years later, he had to settle for bronze at the Games in Indonesia: the same medal he will now walk away with in Myanmar after losing his semi-final in a field of four participants.

His conqueror? Vietnam’s Le Si Kien, the same man Shakir defeated to become world champion last year.

The Singaporean was outpointed 0-5 by his taller opponent and had to settle for a joint-bronze with the other eliminated semi-finalist in the men’s match class ‘H’ category.

When Yahoo reached out to Singapore Silat Federation chief Sheik Alauddin to ask what went wrong for Shakir, the answer was simple: atrocious refereeing, he said.

According to Sheik, Le threw three illegal punches to the face – one in each round – but they went unpunished by Indonesian referee Mastor, save for a warning in the last stanza.

But it was too little too late for a visibly winded Shakir, who never quite recovered from the first vicious blow sustained to his jaw just a minute into the opening exchanges.

“I don’t understand why the referee’s judgment was so poor,” said a frustrated Sheik. “This is a very expensive mistake.”