SEPANG: Standing at 1.92 metres tall, pencak silat world champion Thamaraj Vasudevan cuts an intimidating figure on the silat mat.
But Armed Forces Silat Association secretary Major Noorsyahiddawati Abdullah Sani disclosed that Thamaraj, who switched from taekwondo to silat roughly three years ago, is actually a gentle giant when he is not competing.
"Thamaraj is actually a very cool person and does not talk much," said Noorsyahiddawati when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport today (Dec 24).
"Initially we (Armed Forces) had groomed Thamaraj in taekwondo but unfortunately he suffered a knee injury which disrupted his progress.
"He (later) showed interest in silat and we encouraged him to give it a shot.
"He always did whatever the (Armed Forces) coaches told him and this made it easy for them to teach him.
"Thamaraj could easily absorb what the coaches taught him and after he won the national silat title in 2022, he went on to the national team where he trained under coaches who had more expertise."
The switch to silat clearly paid off as Thamaraj claimed the men's open category two gold at the World Championships which concluded in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (Dec 22).
It was a historic moment as no Malaysian Indian had ever won a silat world title before. Armed Forces' Ahmad Fauzan Hadi also won the men's solo creative category gold while Firdaus Latib claimed silver in the men's open category one class.
"We are incredibly proud of all three of our exponents' performances in Abu Dhabi, especially Thamaraj as he is the only Malaysian Indian in our silat programme," said Noorsyahiddawati.
"They have made Malaysia proud at the highest level of competition in the sport."
The national silat squad enjoyed a successful outing at the World Championships, winning six gold, nine silver and four bronze medals in total.
The squad returned to Malaysia today (Dec 24).