Kenya drawn alongside South Africa in Olympic Sevens Pool C
Kenya playing big guns in Olympics Svenes
JOHANNESBURG, June 29 (ANA) – Kenya have the unenviable task of coming up against South Africa in Pool C of the Tokyo Olympics Sevens tournament, following the draw for the competition which was made on Monday.
Also drawn in Pool C were the United States of America and Ireland.
The tournament will take place from July 26 to July 31 at the Tokyo Stadium.
The 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams have been allocated to three pools of four teams, according to rankings based upon performances in the World Rugby Sevens Series and other World Rugby sanctioned tournaments over the past two years.
South Africa, bronze medalists in Rio, and USA are in Pool C having both achieved direct Olympic qualification by finishing in the top four of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019, where the USA Eagles finished runners-up after reaching the medal podium in seven of the 10 Series rounds.
Joining them are Kenya, who qualified courtesy of their first Rugby Africa men’s sevens title since 2015, and Olympic debutants Ireland, who secured the final spot thanks to a thrilling 28-19 victory over France in the World Rugby Sevens Repechage in Monaco earlier this month.
On the women’s side, Kenya will come up against New Zealand, the Russian Olympic Committee team and Great Britain in Pool A.
Current Rugby World Cup Sevens and World Series title holders New Zealand will face the Russian Olympic Committee team, Great Britain and Kenya. New Zealand beat both Kenya and Great Britain on the way to claiming the silver medal at Rio 2016, while Russia ended the Black Fern’s record-equalling 37-match winning run on the Series with a 17-17 draw in Kitakyushu in April 2019.
The Russian team secured their Olympic debut via this month’s Repechage. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman