The road to Rio takes another turn this weekend with qualifiers in Oceania and Africa set to decide the latest teams to go to the Olympic Games next August.
The Oceania Sevens in Auckland has added excitement this year as the tournament doubles up as the Olympic qualifying event for the region. The winner of both the men's and women's tournaments will book places at Rio. With Fiji and New Zealand having already secured a place in the men's competition next year, Australia, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Nauru and the Solomon Islands will battle it out join them on the greatest stage of all.
New Zealand and Australia's women have already qualified through the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, and so Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands and Tonga will hope to hit top form this weekend as they battle it out to join them in Rio. It's the first time New Zealand has staged the Oceania Sevens and the two-day event will take place this weekend, 14 and 15 November, at the Trusts Arena in Waitakere, Auckland.
The teams that finish second and third in both tournaments will still have a second chance to qualify for Rio, as they qualify for the repechage tournament in June 2016.
Meanwhile in Africa, 12 teams will fight for a place at Rio 2016 when they take part in this weekend's Africa regional Olympic qualifier in Johannesburg.
Top seeds Kenya go into this weekend's qualifier armed with a team that has plenty of experience of the highest level. With South Africa already confirmed for Rio 2016, Kenya's biggest threat is expected to come from Zimbabwe, who go into the qualifier battle-hardened having experienced competitive game time domestically.
Kenya are in Pool A with Madagascar, Mauritius and Senegal. Pool B features Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria and Uganda while Pool C comprises Tunisia, Morocco, Namibia and Botswana.
Much like Oceania, the winner of the 12-team tournament will qualify for the Olympic Games while the second, third and fourth-placed teams will get one final shot at qualification through the 16-team global repechage tournament next year.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
