Manama, Bahrain, October 20, 2025: Just three weeks after getting his first lesson in Pencak Silat, Abdulla Qassim won hosts Bahrain its first medal at the 3rd Asian Youth Games on Monday, October 20.
Abdulla lost the gold medal match in the boys’ 51kg-55kg class, going down to Indonesian Furgon Habbil Winata. But his silver medal was greeted with huge applause from the home crowd at the Exhibition World Bahrain venue, the local fans warmly welcoming the Kingdom’s first medal in the games.
Few of them would have known the mission impossible Abdulla had faced in his journey to a silver medal-winning performance.
“I only trained for three weeks with coaches from Indonesia. I do kick-boxing so martial arts is not completely new to me, but Pencak Silat is, and I’m pleased to have won this medal despite the short time frame preparing,” said an overjoyed Abdulla.
The 15-year-old was thrust into national TV limelight with the Bahrain media mobbing him after the medal presentation, delighted that the Kingdom had won the first medal of the games.
Pencak Silat, a traditional martial art from Indonesia, was a late entry into these games – along with kurash – thanks to the Olympic Council of Asia paving the way with the help of the Bahrain Asian Youth Games Organising Committee.
Indonesian Rafiq Radinal, Secretary General Pencak Silat Federation of Asia, paid tribute to the OCA for allowing his sport to debut at these games – and he now wants more for the sport.
“We are very grateful to the OCA for accepting us here. I hope we can now also enter the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games next September. The sport is widely contested around Asia, and I hope the Japanese organisers will allow us entry. I know that the OCA is receptive,” outlined Rafiq.
Once they were accepted as a medal sport at the Bahrain AYG, the Indonesians were keen that the host nation should be a part of the competition, so they sent two coaches from Jakarta to train two young athletes, Abdulla being one.
They only came three weeks ago, but will now stay on until the end of the year as they try and put in place a structure for the sport.
“It is amazing that with just three weeks of training that young Abdulla won the silver medal. He deserves the victory,” said Indonesian Riski Adi Wijaya, one of the coaches sent from Jakarta.