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Home | News | VIETNAM: MAG plays winning role at Southeast Asian Gaelic Games

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One of the winners' plaques that MAG donated.

Male and female teams from Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam have taken part in Vietnam's first ever Gaelic football tournament, with MAG supplying special winners' plaques made out of wood, marble and half a FFE (free from explosives) cluster munition removed from the soil in Quang Tri Province just south of the former demilitarised zone.

One of the teams competing for the SEA GAA Challenge in Hanoi, Viet Celts, count MAG Vietnam Programme Officer Clint Lambert amongst their ranks.

The Viet Celts made history last year when they became the first ever Vietnam-based Gaelic football club. But the home side were denied glory at the UNIS grounds in Ciputra International City by a highly accomplished Singapore side. Some of the Viet Celts managed to turn a few heads on the pitch, especially a young Vietnamese player Viet who scored the first point of the championship after a sensational dummy left his Malaysian marker completely wrong-footed.

Despite their relative inexperience, Viet Celts ladies team, in white, reached the final where they lost to Singapore. [photos: Aidan Dockery, www.abdphoto.net]

Despite a heroic performance by the Malaysian goalkeeper, who went on to be named the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP), Singapore wrapped up the final and lifted the inaugural South East Asian Gaelic Games trophy. Singapore also won the women's invitational against the Viet Celts, which featured five local Vietnamese women playing their first ever competitive match.

MAG supplied five plaques in total, including for the men's and ladies' winners, and the tournament's MVP.

Gaelic football, often called GAA – the acronym for the Gaelic Athletic Association – is a game that originated in Ireland. It is normally played by teams of 15 on a grass field with H-shaped goals at each end. You can score a point by kicking the ball over the bar, or three points for scoring a goal.

Links:

» About MAG's work in Vietnam
» Why does MAG work in Vietnam?
» Viet Celts official website

MAG's work in Vietnam is currently funded by: Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; Adopt-A-Minefield; IrishAid; Imperial Tobacco.

1 July 08