The tiny pacific nation of Fiji has won its first ever Olympic medal after thumping Great Britain 43-7 in the rugby sevens final to scoop the gold medal.
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“Everyone has worked so hard, and it has been an awesome journey”.
Princess Anne had the honour of presenting the rugby sevens medal ceremony yesterday in Rio, as she handed gold, silver and bronze out to the top three teams. When we finish here we are coming for you’. “We set simple standards, everybody knows what’s going on, there’s no politics around our group of players or our management – and it works”.
“Anybody’s that been here in a market that is not a traditional (rugby) market and look how the Brazil women’s team qualified for the World Series and then you see the Brazilian men living on first and last tries when they played Fiji”, he said. True to form, they won gold.
An island nation in the South Pacific has made history.
Katobalavu says, “These guys are heroes”.
And there was no immediate prospect of things improving for Britain.
“People are so happy – they have so little in Fiji and when my mates talk about all their first-world problems…” he shakes his head.
Josua Tuisova added another try shortly after half-time, and although Dan Norton claimed a consolation score for Britain, Fiji inevitably had the final word when Viliame Mata crossed the whitewash. It is probably right that Fiji, the team that plays the game so beautifully, were rewarded with the gold and the first medal for their country.
He trains the team until they can’t run anymore and instructs his players to run at their opponents hard and fast, something that was evident during the Olympics when the Fijians looked unstoppable with ball in hand.
“I just thank god.and I thank the International Rugby Board for having faith in me and other former rugby players, going to the International Olympic Committee and bidding for rugby to be in the Olympics”.
Dominating from the outset of the tournament – where they were heavily tipped for glory – Fiji never looked in fear of being beaten, seeing off the challenges of Argentina, USA, New Zealand, Japan and then GB easily.
“It has been unbelievable”.
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“It has been an interesting journey”.
