Umar reaps the fruits of hard work

Umar reaps the fruits of hard work

Musthofid
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

Umar Syarif was jubilant, punching his right fist into the air.

He was so overwhelmed by his victory in the much anticipated
final match against Jose Mari of Philippines in Karate's over 80
kilograms class that he could not hold back his tears.

The bout on Sunday saw the return of his winning form
following his under-par performances in the previous two Games.
He came to Brunei in 1999 as the defending champion but ended up
with a silver, while in Kuala Lumpur he only managed to take the
bronze.

"It was bad in the last two Games. In the run-up to this
year's games, I was determined that I would do my best. I trained
hard because I wanted to be the champion," he told The Jakarta
Post while cheering on his teammates at the Gia Lam Gymnasium.

With his eyes firmly fixed on the SEA Games, Umar still
managed to perform his religious obligations during the fasting
month.

"It was an arduous two months of training. I did not scale
down the training even when I was fasting," he said.

Umar was one of five Indonesian karate athletes being pushed
hard to win golds.

The trainees had practice bouts three times a week over three
months. During these bouts, the karatekas took on each other with
the same seriousness they would take on opponents in real
matches.

To make the practice bouts as real as possible, the athletes
would pretend that their opponents were top karatekas from the
region.

Knowing that Jose Mari would be the toughest rival, Umar
picked the Filipino.

"He was champion in Kuala Lumpur. That's why my focus was
always on him," he said. "And I was proved right as it was he I
came up against in the real final," said the husband of national
tennis player Liza Andriyani.

Umar's victory helped the Indonesian karate team win four gold
medals. The competition closed on Monday with Vietnam taking the
most golds with 14.