Fiji sealed a third Gold Coast rugby sevens title with a try seconds from fulltime yesterday, getting their quest for a maiden Olympic medal off to a flying start.
Fiji won a thrilling final 31-24 against Pacific rivals Samoa, holding on for victory in the face of a brave Samoa fightback.
They cruised to a 26-0 lead in the first half, with Setefano Cakau scoring a try double, before Samoa piled on 24 unanswered points to trail by two points going into the final minute of the contest.
Photo: AFP
Jasa Veremalua’s strong run sealed the win for Fiji. He dived over in the corner to ensure Fiji lead the IRB World Sevens series after the first of nine events.
This year’s IRB World Sevens series doubles as a qualifier for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, with the top-four-ranked countries earning an automatic berth.
Fiji have never won an Olympic medal, but will be among the favorites if they can reach Rio.
Fiji did not lose a game in the weekend tournament, beating Australia 35-12 in Saturday’s final pool match before demolishing Wales (31-10), England (48-7) and Samoa to make it three wins from four trips to the Gold Coast.
England, who stunned New Zealand with a 31-7 win over the world champions in the quarter-finals, finished third with a 19-0 victory over South Africa.
New Zealand recovered from their quarter-final shock to win the consolation plate and fifth place in the tournament with a 36-21 win over Argentina.
It was the first time New Zealand have failed to make the final at the Gold Coast event since its inception three years ago.
The result was the All Blacks’ worst at an IRB sevens tournament since they also finished fifth in Dubai in 2011.
Australia had to settle for a share of seventh with Wales after they suffered back-to-back defeats yesterday.
The Thunderbolts fell agonizingly short in their quarter-final against Commonwealth Games champions South Africa, losing 12-10, with Cameron Clark missing a conversion after the full-time siren, before slumping to a 21-17 loss to Argentina in the plate semi-final.
The next leg of the world series is to be in Dubai in December.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
RSS