Last Sunday the men's Medical Football team were crowned champions of the San Hao Cup for the third year in a row! This achievement was all the more special given that many of last year's players had graduated, meaning that for many players this was their first campaign in the competition.

Although the full time result of 1-0 sounds like a narrow win, the defending champions never looked in much danger and were unfortunate not to win by more after hitting the post on 5 occasions! Following an early goal in the first half by team captain Ali Dhahi, the medics took control of the game and gave their opponents, from Zhu Kezhen college.

The pace of the game was slightly slower given that both teams had played in gruelling semi-finals just 24 hours before. In fact at one stage it looked like the medical team would not even make it to the final game! Losing 2-0 in the semi-final with only 15minutes to go, it took great courage and incredible determination for the defending champions to fight back to make it 2-2 at full time. The successful penalty shootout was followed by scenes of wild celebration as the team completed a memorable comeback victory.

Asked about his thoughts when collecting the trophy after the final, departing team captain Ali Dhahi said 'I was feeling so proud of playing for the School of Medicine and of all the work we have done. It was a pleasure to make our school, classmates, friends and families proud of us. And I can't forget to say what a great pleasure it was to make my teammates proud to say that we are the School of Medicine football team'.

And what will be his best memory from this year's tournament? 'The best memory will be the team spirit when we came back from losing 2-0. We didn't give up, fought to the end and made it possible to win the trophy'.

Congratulations on another year as the CHAMPIONS.