The Kenya rugby sevens team Shujaa have qualified for the Paris Olympics making it three qualifications in a row. Shujaa overcame pre-tournament favorites South Africa 17-12 in an exciting final and they will now join France, New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, Australia, Uruguay, Ireland and USA in the Paris line-up.
Coach Kevin Wambua was always confident they could make it to a third Olympic Games after participating in Rio and Tokyo and the Shujaa made short work of their day one opponents, Zambia, Namibia, and Nigeria, to top Pool B and reach the quarter-finals.
Kenya were equally clinical in dispatching Burkina Faso (26-0) and then hosts Zimbabwe (35-10) as the Shujaa booked their place in the final.
Shujaa took an early lead through Patrick Odongo but trailed 12-7 at the break after conceding tries from Selvyn Davids and Christie Grobbelaar.
Odongo scored again in the second half to level the scores before John Okoth scored the try that sent Kenya to the Olympics.
South Africa’s march through the pool phase had been equally impressive. Sandile Ngcobo’s team scored 120 points and only conceded 14 in a strong day one display, which yielded wins over Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Madagascar, Rosko Specman announcing his return to the international arena with four tries against the Ivorians.
South Africa and Uganda will fight for the remaining slots to be decided via the Oceania and Asia qualification tournaments and the Olympic repechage tournament.