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.