With Kenya’s famed track and field team still unsure whether they will be allowed to compete at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, an unlikely new medal prospect has emerged for the African nation — their men’s sevens rugby outfit.
Hardly a world power in the 15-a-side game, Kenya has suddenly popped up as a genuine medal contender in sevens, which is to be played in Rio as rugby returns to the Olympics after a 92-year hiatus.
Ranked seventh in the world, ahead of traditional heavyweights including England and France, Kenya served notice of their intentions for Rio by winning the Singapore leg of the sevens world series, beating Fiji in Sunday’s final.
Photo: AFP
It was Kenya’s first tournament win in a world series event after they had made two previous finals, in Australia in 2009 and New Zealand in 2013, and it could not have come at a better time with the Olympics just four months away and the country’s athletics team under a doping cloud.
“For our players, this win will give them huge amounts of self-belief,” Kenya coach Benjamin Ayimba said. “We’ve always had the potential, but knowing now that we can beat the best will give us even more confidence for success in future tournaments. This will make us an even better and more dangerous team to play against.”
As Kenya’s players celebrated their win with a gospel song and impromptu jig at Singapore’s National Stadium, their victory lit up rugby’s social media sites, with even Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta tweeting his congratulations to the underdogs.
Their emergence is well-timed for Kenya, with the country’s track and field team facing the possibility of being banned from Rio unless it passes a new anti-doping law following a string of positive tests.
Kenya has only ever won medals in two sports at the Olympics: athletics and boxing. Of the 25 gold medals Kenya has won, 24 have been in track and field. However, the sevens team is hoping to change that.
“We hope it inspires the kids to play rugby and it just gives them a lot more heroes to look up to, so for us it’s a major milestone,” Ayimba said. “The target for Rio is always to win.”
Kenya already have budding heroes in their ranks, none more so than Collins Injera, a 29-year-old speedster who ranks second on the all-time sevens try-scoring lists.
Injera kicked a 40m penalty after the siren to clinch a 15-12 win over Argentina in the semi-finals, then scored two of his team’s six tries in the 30-7 rout of Fiji in the final.
Like most of the top Kenyan rugby union players, Injera grew up running and playing soccer before switching to rugby in his early teens. The son of a professor, he made his international debut a decade ago and has been scoring tries at a regular frequency, though he is more widely known for what he once did after one of his touchdowns.
At the London Sevens last year, Injera celebrated his 200th try by pulling a marker pen from his socks and scrawling his name on a television camera, as tennis players often do. Unaware that the cameras need a protective covering, he unwittingly ruined a lens valued at about £60,000 pounds (US$86,000).
Despite the shock loss, Fiji extended their lead at the top of the series standings to eight points after eight of the 10 rounds to remain favorites to win gold at the Olympics in August.
South Africa leapfrogged New Zealand into second overall.
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