Fatima A-Isha Lim Hamsain seamlessly transitioned back to karatedo from her new passion in pencak silat as she bagged two medals Sunday in the 8th edition of the Women’s Martial Arts Festival at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
The 16-year-old Hamsain, whose dad is a technical official in pencak silat, first earned a gold medal with her teammates from the Maharlika Karatedo Kai of the Philippines International, before settling for a bronze in the team competitions.
Hamsain said she was able to infuse some of the moves that she learned from the fighting styles of tanding and semi-tunggal.
“I’m cross-training. That’s why I memorize a lot of movements,” said Hamsain, whose family is from Zamboanga City.
Hamsain and and teammates Baby Angel Lamorte and Christine Colonia tallied 22.2 points to finish ahead of Central State University rivals.
CLSU’s Marie June Adriano, Jerahmeel Trases and Julie Mae Bonifacio collected 20.2 points for the silver.
Another team from CLSU, composed of Melody Delfin, Janine Co and Aprilyn Mateo took the bronze with 15 points.
In the individual kata, Hamsain settled for a bronze medal behind two teammates from the Association for the Advancement of Karatedo.
Focus on the power of their lunge and reverse punches allowed Hamsain’s teammates to finish big in their performance.
“My moves in Shotokan were kind of similar to what’s done in pencak silat. I mixed it up. The similarities are in the power punches and the kicks,” added Hamsain, who was making a shift to pencak silat with the encouragement of her dad, Molly, when the pandemic lockdowns came two years ago.
Hamsain, whose team is coached by police staff sergeant Raquel Lacorte, also got influenced in Shotokan two years ago by the Philippines’ top ekata practitioner James “OJ” de los Santos.
She even joined online meets with De los Santos.
Two years ago, Hamsain has climbed to no. 2 on the eKumite under-15 world rankings after her gold-winning performance in one of competitions in the SportData eTournament World Series.
Hamsain said that by joining more national meets in the coming months, she hopes to someday find a chance to see action in face-to-face international competitions.