Dart News from Saigon

"Saigon Darts Team Defeats Singapore Team in Johnnie Walker Grand Prix Open - Press Release

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (OPENPRESS) September 6, 2005 -- International darts history was made and an excellent time was had by all in Vietnam’s first ever international darts sporting event which was sponsored by Johnnie Walker and held at the Oscar Hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. International players made the trip for the two day event which included a match between a team from Ho Chi Minh City and a team from Singapore.

The meet took place over a two-day period with three competitions: a team event, a doubles event and a singles event. Saigon won the team event over Singapore with a score of 42-30. In the doubles tournament though the Singaporean team made up of Paul Morier and Richard Lionel Dason dominated the play, winning the final round by an impressive 4-0 score over Saigon’s Tran Thai Dung and UK’s Javed Sultan. Singaporean Paul Morier is on a roll after having just taken a second place trophy in an international singles event held in Kuala Lumpur only last month. Third place in the doubles event went to Blaine Karst and Charles Czarnecki over UK’s Tom Cummins and Percy Poon.

The singles final may well have been one of the most exciting matches of the tournament with Canadian Blaine Karst beating American Charles Czarnecki 4-2 in some really fast play. Third place in the single event went to Hong Konger Percy Poon over Vietnamese Tran Thai Dung.

“We really appreciated the Singaporean team coming here,” said Gary Dale Cearley, a co-organizer of the event, “we are doing our best to help grow darts in Vietnam and throughout the region and the support that we got from these good Singaporean darters was a giant leap for darts in Vietnam.” Cearley went on to say that this event provided a solid foundation to build on for next year’s repeat event, but the next level of Vietnam’s grow as a darts nation is to be able to take the league to outside international competitions as well. “I think we would all be happy to see Than Duc “Guppy” Liem and Tran Thai Dung and other good Vietnamese players winning matches in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as well as in Ho Chi Minh City,” says Cearley, “then Vietnam’s darters will know they have arrived.”

“On behalf of the event I would like to thank Johnnie Walker for being so generous and making this darts international possible,” said Blaine Karst, the main organizer and singles winner, “our association with Johnnie Walker has really helped the sport to grow in Vietnam by leaps and bounds. We couldn’t have a better partner.”


For further information:

E-Mail: gary.dale@cearley.net / blaine_karst@hoanglongjoc.com.vn
Tel.: +84 8 827 5670
Fax: +84 8 827 5671
Related Website: http://www.vietnamdarts.org
Related Website: http://www.cyberdarts.com/assnSingapore.HTML