Moments after beating Indonesia's Shafril Asad Habibullah 19-10 to claim his second world title on Dec 22, national silat exponent Sheik Ferdous Sheik Alauddin glanced at the TV camera and shrugged.
It was an understated yet confident gesture from an athlete who had just ended a six-year wait to reclaim gold on the world stage.
Back competing in his preferred weight category, the Class I (85-90kg) division, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, the 28-year-old was out to prove his detractors wrong.
Ferdous said: "The drive is different. The first time was like, 'I want to win it in Singapore, this is my first time that I'm going to be a world champion'.
"The desire to win is the same, if not greater. I wanted to prove a point to myself and people who doubted me.
"It was to tell them that I am at this level and the difference this time is that this was not on home ground, so there's no reason to say I had home-ground advantage or advantage of any form."
Ferdous' faith in himself was cultivated over a tough few years that were riddled with personal setbacks.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 23, 2024-Ausgabe von The Straits Times.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 23, 2024-Ausgabe von The Straits Times.
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