Fiji swept all before them to win gold yesterday at the World Games Rugby Sevens, retaining the title they won four years ago in an exciting tournament that saw Taiwan finish a respectable sixth out of eight teams.
The Main Stadium was turned into a mini Hong Kong as a crowd of more than 9,000 locals and foreign fans descended to cheer on their favorites.
Fiji, who had looked unimpressive a day earlier, had obviously been saving themselves, as they dominated proceedings from the start, outscoring Taiwan by four tries to one in their opening game, before comfortably beating a strong and previously undefeated South Africa in the semi-final 21-7 to set up a gold medal match with surprise finalists Portugal.
The Taiwanese, meanwhile, quickly got over the Fiji defeat to put on a good show against Hong Kong in their second match. No. 6 Chen Chih-wei was the star, scoring both tries in an end-to-end first seven minutes to give Taiwan a 10-7 halftime lead.
Hong Kong hit back almost immediately after the break with a try in the corner to take a 12-10 lead, before Wang Jen-his got his second try of the day, breaking from the halfway line after a turnover to touch down for a 17-12 win that set up a fifth-sixth place decider with the US.
Unfortunately, Taiwan couldn’t replicate their victory over the US on Saturday, losing after a thrilling match that saw the lead change hands on three occasions.
Taiwan got off to the worst possible start, conceding two tries in the first five minutes to trail 14-0, but they put themselves right back in contention in first-half overtime as star player Chen scored under the posts after a turnover to make it 14-7 at the break.
Dance Sport
Latin
Gold: Alexey Silde/Anna Firstova (Russia)
Silver: Jurij Batagelj/Jagoda Strukelj (Slovakia)
Bronze: Gabriele Goffredo/Antonia Goffredo (Italy)
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Gold: Christophe Payan/Kathy Richeta (France)
Silver: Ivan Yudin/Olga Sbitneva (Russia)
Bronze: Ivan Klimov/Katrin Gazazyan
(Russia)
Gymnastics Aerobic
Women’s Individual
Gold: Marcela Lopez (Brazil)
Silver: Angela McMillan (New Zealand)
Bronze: Huang Jinxuan (China)
Trio
Gold: Mircea Brinzea/Tudorel-Valentin Mavrodineanu/Mircea Zamfir (Romania)
Silver: Tao Le/Che Lei/Zhang Peng
(China)
Bronze: Benjamin Garavel/Nicolas Garavel/Morgan Jacquemin (France)
Group
Gold: China
Silver: Romania
Bronze: Russia
Karate
Women’s Kumite over 60kg
Gold: Maria Sobol (Russia)
Silver: Eva Medvedova Tulejova (Slovakia)
Bronze: Ting Chang (Taiwan)
Women’s Kumite over 60kg
Gold: Arnela Ondzakovic (Bos)
Silver: Tiffany Fanjat (France)
Bronze: Silvia Sperner (Germany)
Men’s Kumite 65kg
Gold: Adam S. Kovacs (Hungary)
Silver: William Rolle (France)
Bronze: Omer Kemaloglu (Turkey)
Men’s Kumite 70kg
Gold: Jean Pena (Venezuela)
Silver: Shinji Nagaki (Japan)
Bronze: Tamer Morsy (Egypt)
Men’s Kumite 75kg
Gold: Michael-Georgios Tzanos (Greece)
Silver: Diego Vandeschrick (Belgium)
Bronze: Kou Matsuhisa (Japan)
Men’s Kumite 80kg
Gold: Huang Hao-yun (Taiwan)
Silver: Islamutdin Eldaruchev
Bronze: Konstantinos Papadopoulos (Greece)
Men’s Kumite over 80kg
Gold: Jonathan Horne (Germany)
Silver: Spyridon Margaritopoulos (Greece)
Bronze: Almir Cecunjanin (Montenegro)
Life Saving
Women’s Beach Surf Race
Gold: Kristyl Smith (Australia)
Silver: Naomi Flood (Australia)
Bronze: Ayla Dunlop-Barrett (New Zealand)
Men’s Beach Surf Race
Gold: Christopher Allum (Australia)
Silver: Glenn Anderson (New Zealand)
Bronze: Federico Pinotti (Italy)
Women’s Beach Board Race
Gold: Nikki Cox (New Zealand)
Silver: Naomi Flood (Australia)
Bronze: Madison Boon (New Zealand)
Men’s Beach Board Race
Gold: Daniel Moodie (New Zealand)
Silver: Hugh Dougherty (Australia)
Bronze: Shannon Eckstein (Australia)
Beach Oceanwoman
Gold: Naomi Flood (Australia)
Silver: Kristyl Smith (Australia)
Bronze: Nikki Cox (New Zealand)
Beach Oceanman
Gold: Shannon Eckstein (Australia)
Silver: Hugh Dougherty (Australia)
Bronze: Ryan Brennan (South Africa)
Men’s Overall Team
Gold: Italy
Silver: New Zealand
Bronze: Australia
Women’s Overall Team
Gold: Germany
Silver: Australia
Bronze (joint): Italy, China
Powerlifting
Women’s Lightweight
Gold: Chen Wei-ling (Taiwan)
Silver: Yukako Fukushima (Japan)
Bronze: Sri Hartani (Indonesia)
Men’s Lightweight
Gold: Hsieh Tsung-ting (Taiwan)
Silver: Arkadiy Shalokha (Ukraine)
Bronze: Hassan El Belghitti (France)
Women’s Middleweight
Gold: Noviana Sari (Indonesia)
Silver: Tetiana Prymenchuk (Ukraine)
Bronze: Zhanna Ivanova (Ukraine)
Men’s Middleweight
Gold: Jaroslaw Olech (Poland)
Silver: Andrii Naniev (Ukraine)
Bronze: Jan Wegiera (Poland)
Men’s Heavyweight
In progress
Rugby Sevens
Gold: Fiji
Silver: Portugal
Bronze: South Africa
Water Ski
Women’s Tournament
Gold: Kate Adriaensen (Belgium)
Silver: Manon Costard (France)
Bronze: Caroline Hensley (US)
Men’s Tournament
Gold: Rodrigo Miranda Arellano (Chile)
Silver: Storm Selsor (US)
Bronze: Martin Bartalsky (Slovakia)
Women’s Wakeboard
Gold: Dallas Friday (US)
Silver: Raimi Merritt (US)
Bronze: Miku Asai (Japan)
Men’s Wakeboard
Gold: Andrew Adkison (US)
Silver: Kyle Rattray (Canada)
Bronze: Padiwat Jaemjan (Thailand)
Almost immediately after the restart, Taiwan made it 14-12 as a nice switch of passes between Chen and Wang Kuo-feng saw Wang score in the corner. The crowd then went wild as straight from the kick-off, Wang Ju-an dummied his way through the US defense to score and put Taiwan 19-14 in front.
However, they couldn’t hold out for the win as the US scored from a penalty with 90 seconds left to make the final score 21-19 and secure fifth place, pushing Taiwan into sixth.
In the final, the Fijians proved too strong and too full of running for the Portuguese, running in an impressive seven tries to win the match 43-10 and take the gold medal.
The crowd was further entertained as a streaker ran across the pitch just after the final buzzer, before the heavens opened to make for a wet medal presentation.
South Africa took the bronze medal after beating Argentina 17-0 in the third-fourth place play-off.
Japan finished seventh, while Hong Kong took the wooden spoon after losing all six matches.
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