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Patrick Odongo scored a brace as Kenya Sevens pulled off a memorable win to seal their qualification to next year's Olympics at the expense of the much-fancied South Africa
Kenya Sevens have qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics after beating South Africa 17-12 in the Cup final of the Africa Sevens tournament in Harare, Zimbabwe on Sunday.
Shujaa had a flawless campaign from the group stage before edging out Burkina Faso 26-10 and Zimbabwe 35-10 in the cup quarter-final and semi-final respectively to set up the meeting with South Africa.
With only the winners of the tournament earning a direct ticket to Paris, Kevin Wambua’s men had their work cut out but they were made to work for their win.
Patrick Odongo was the hero of the day with his brace of tries doing the trick for Shujaa. He scored the opening try for Kenya which was converted for a 7-0 lead before South Africa responded with two quick tries, one converted, for a 12-7 lead at the break.
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11:00 - 17.09.2023
RUGBY John Okoth on fire as Shujaa cruise past Burkina Faso into Rugby Africa Sevens semis
Kenya Sevens are now just two games away from qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics
Odongo then scored his second of the game to tie the scores 12-12 after the break before John Okoth extended Shujaa’s lead to 17-12 and they held on to claim a memorable win.
Kenya had an unblemished group stage campaign when they started with a 34-10 win over Nigeria before thrashing Namibia 50-0 in their second match and ended with a 38-12 defeat of Zambia.
That earned them a favourable quarter-final draw against Burkina Faso whom they thrashed before serving the same dose to Zimbabwe.
It is a good start for Wambua whose main objective was to ensure Kenya qualified for the Olympics even if his job was made hard by the presence of South Africa.
The Blitzboks were forced into the qualifiers after failing to finish in the top four at last season’s World Rugby Sevens Series and were seen as heavy favourites to pick the ticket to Paris owing to Kenya’s poor showing in the World Series which saw them relegated for the first time in 19 years.
Shujaa headed to Zimbabwe still with many doubting them but have shown that they have life in them with the Olympics qualification which will give them plenty of confidence that they can bounce back from the second-tier Challenger Series to the top flight next season.
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20:30 - 16.09.2023
RUGBY Shujaa land favourable cup quarter-final draw at Olympics qualifiers
Kenya Sevens were handed what appears to be an easy opponent in the quarter-final of the ongoing Africa Sevens which is acting as the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifier
Victory means Kenya can now begin their preparations for the Olympics, their third straight appearance at the Games, since rugby sevens was incorporated at the 2016 edition.
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