HumasUPNVJ - Thariqhat Rama Putra, representing S1 Informatics Faculty of Computer Science UPN Veterans Jakarta managed to achieve proud achievements at the international level. He managed to win 1st place in the Adult Men's B Class Competition at the PAKU BUMI OPEN VII International Pencak Silat Championship which was held on 28 February 2020 – 1 March 2020 at Gor Laga Tangkas. Pekansari, Cibinong, Bogor.

This championship was organized by IPSI (Indonesian Pencak Silat Association) who competed for the Rotating Trophy Maj. Gen. TNI (Purn.) Eddie Marzuki Nalapraya, as chairman of PERSILAT (Association of Pencak Silat Between Nations) which was open and was attended by 4 countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan.

The UPNVJ Public Relations Team had the opportunity to conduct an online interview with Thariq, in his interview Thariq told about the process prior to participating in this competition, "The process is long, starting from a year, you have to start intense training following the trainer's program, be it training at home or in the field, participating in sparring, making the most of your time and balance it with the learning process. he said

“In this championship I brought FIK's name with my own silat college contingent and managed to bring home a medal that was quite satisfying. But to become a champion is very difficult, therefore I have to balance my training program which is very much with my lecture activities. With preparation that took so long and spent time, effort and thought, I finally got what was worth the effort I had put in.” Tariq continued

Apart from that, Tariq also shared stories about the ups and downs in the long process of participating in this competition, "I was happy when I received a medal and was confident that I could win the competition, there were many sorrows, most often it was difficult to keep up with practice and college time, not to mention when practice getting hurt and not getting support from parents. Especially now with the Covid-19 pandemic in our country, I should receive monitoring from the IPSI Pelatnas team to see if I can spar against the Indonesian Pelatnas team, in the sense that I will get a ticket to advance to a higher level such as SEA GAMES. temporarily not implemented. Even so, I don't give up, especially since there are still many championships that I can participate in and raise my name to become a national athlete.” Obviously

Tariq also advised other #Defenders friends to always be enthusiastic to achieve the highest possible goals, not to be easily satisfied with what has been achieved and most importantly always try and be grateful to God Almighty.