GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 36 - October 17, 2015 | Page 16

SHANGHAI, CHINA OCTOBER 17, 2015 It’s a busy month for major world GAA events and international tournaments do not come much bigger than next week’s 2015 Asian Gaelic Games in Shanghai, China. Over the past number of years, this two day festival of Gaelic football, hurling and camogie has had a base in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia but this year sees the Asian championship take on a new look as the games move to China to the Shanghai Community Sports Club. The tournament begins on Friday October 23 through Saturday and features men’s and ladies Gaelic Football as well as Hurling and Camogie. Every year this event draws a huge team and player following and this year is no exception with a total of some 60 teams taking part with no less than 52 teams in football and 8 between hurling and camogie. The senior football cup is one of the premier competitions over the two days and will see Singapore ready to defend their crown from last year. Standing in their way however will be 4 to 5 other teams (complete schedule not finalized) with the likes of invited guests from the Middle East, Dubai, a major threat as well as the Seoul team. In the senior ladies event 7 teams will square off with Singapore again the defending champions and they will have keen competition from last year’s finalists and this year’s host’s Shanghai along with the All China Games winners Hong Kong. At the intermediate grade there are 16 teams split evenly between men’s and ladies with the possible favourites in the men’s Singapore B, Thailand and Taiwan, while in the ladies the teams that may feature could be Shanghai B, Singapore B, Beijing A and Thailand. 16 The junior competition features a lot of local and international players as well as return guests from UCD, Dublin and newcomers Queens University from Belfast and their international player squads. Some 13 teams will take to the field in this event with Vietnam and the Shanghai and Singapore sides the ones to watch. In Hurling 5 teams will lineout with Hong Kong and Dubai the favourites while in Camogie a further 3 will be in action with the vising Middle East team the big danger to Hong Kong and Singapore.