Chairman of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) Raja Sapta Oktohari said pencak silat will be contested in the international championships of the 2025 Bahrain Asian Youth Games (AYG) and the 2025 Riyadh Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG).
"This is part of diplomacy. Hopefully, through AYG and ISG, we can make pencak silat even more popular globally," Oktohari told the media after the Indonesian Team Inauguration and Farewell Ceremony.
He said that initially pencak silat was not included in the sports branches featured in the two events.
However, at the behest of President Prabowo Subianto, who is also the President of the International Pencak Silat Federation , the two organizing countries (Bahrain and Saudi Arabia) were willing to include pencak silat before the competition began.
Specifically for pencak silat played at the AYG event, there are medals to be won.
