At the final round of the 17th national Vovinam championships of Algeria

The annual tournament, under the auspices of the Algerian Ministry of Youth andSports and the Algerian Vovinam Federation, aims to honour the spirit of themartial art and encourage the practice of Vovinam in the African country.

This year the championship drew the participation of nearly 300 artists from 66clubs across the nation. Thousands of trainees and fans came to cheer on theirfavourites at the final round.

After hours of thrilling competition, the Algerian Security and Sport Associationtook first place with nine gold and four silver medals. Wydad Riadhi desEucalyptus came second with three gold, six silver and one bronze medals, andAS Protection Civilile finished third with three gold and one bronze medals.

At the event, Minister-Counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Algeria Trinh TheHung commended the practice of Vovinam in the African nation, saying he iswilling to endorse activities organized by the Algerian Vovinam Federation in abid to promote development in the country.

Introduced toAlgeria in the 1970s, Vovinam has become popular and is now practised by over20,000 people across the country.

Vovinam (Viet VoDao) was founded by Nguyen Loc (1912-1960) in 1936 but developed in 1938 with aview to providing practitioners with an efficient method of self-defence aftera short period of study.

Vovinam ispracticed with and without weapons. It is based on the principle of combining ‘hard’and ‘soft’. It is not only about the training the body, but also the mind.

Vovinam ispractised in more than 60 countries and territories, with millions of learnersat thousands of Vovinam clubs./.VNA