Singapore (VNA) – Singapore’s national pencak silat fighter Iqbal Abdul Rahman aimsfor a gold medal at the upcoming 31st SEA Games in Vietnam from May 12-23.

Iqbal's men's artistic single event is amongthe first medal events scheduled to take place on the eve of the Games'official opening ceremony, so he could be in contention for Singapore's firstgold in Hanoi.

He said it would mean a lot if he could grab that first gold for pencak silatand it would be amazing if he is also able to be the first gold for Singapore. “I'mlooking forward to going in and aiming to be the first to win."

Iqbal Abdul Rahman is a world champion andfour-time Asian Championships gold medallist. But the 28-year-old player hasyet to get a SEA Games triumph in five attempts.

A silver medal at the last edition of the SEA Games in the Philippines in 2019is Iqbal's best showing. He also won a bronze medal in 2015.

Singapore’s pencak silat team sets a target of three golds, three silver andsix bronze medals from 16 events at this SEA Games

He has set a target for the team to return with a total of three gold, threesilver and six bronze medals from the 16 events.

Pencak silat is a traditional strength of many regional countries like Indonesia,Malaysia and Vietnam./.